The Millennium Heart I: The Lost Soul
by PharaohsThrone
Summary: (Early chapters under revision) The Yu-Gi-Oh gang find their world turned upside down when a mystery girl suddenly joins in on the adventure, bringing a tangled and unknown past with her. Little do they know however, she wields a mysterious and ancient power that not even she knows about, but after setting out to find answers, what they come across is even more astounding.
1. Chapter 1 - Virtual Nightmare

Knee deep in Domino's Battle City tournament, the finalists are thrown off course by none other than Noah Kaiba, pulling them all deep into his own virtual environment. Apart from running into each member of the Big 5 on their way out of this world however, they come across someone new entirely. So the gang team up with this stranger in order to find their way out, but it's the events that happen after this that has them all utterly confused.

In a story involving shadow magic, dramatic duels and a lot of complications, two long lost friends will be reunited, while the gang continue to save the world...again.

And it all started with The Millennium Heart.

* * *

**Chapter 1 - Virtual Nightmare**

Chest heaving and throat begging for water, Yugi hunched over, placing his hands on his knees to try and catch his breath. He had spent the last-twenty minutes? He wasn't sure-running through this never ending tunnel, and seemingly getting nowhere. He wondered how he could be making no progress but still feel exhausted, that was one mystery of this virtual world. He had just defeated his opponent Gansley, and upon walking through a mysterious door this is where he had ended up. _Maybe I shouldn't have gone this way..._he thought. Dwelling on his decisions wasn't going to get him anywhere though, so he decided to persist at finding his friends. Hopefully if he made it to Tea and Tristan before they had to duel, they would have more of a chance of winning and therefore keep their earthly bodies. Of course Noah would split them up, he thought to himself, Serenity must be terrified. He hoped that Joey would be able to find her before she had to do any dueling either, because he was sure the poor girl hadn't even picked up a deck in her life.

"Will this tunnel ever end?" he asked, having now gained his breath back as he looked behind him and saw the exact same sight as in front.

_"It might,"_ Yami replied, his spirit appearing beside the boy, _"But only when Noah wants it to. You mustn't forget Yugi, he's controlling everything around us."_

Yugi didn't care that Noah had the upper hand, and he stood up straight again, determination shining in his eyes, "Noah can try to stop us if he wants to but we're gonna find our friends, no matter what." He clenched his fist, before setting his eyes at the path in front, and set off at a run once more down the tunnel. Yami smiled at Yugi's enthusiasm as he continued to run down the tunnel, before an odd sound reached their ears. Yugi slowed down to a walk so he could listen to it more carefully, "What is that?" he asked. Yami listened with him, and noticed that the feint sound was getting louder, and his eyes widened when he realised it was someone screaming. When he turned to look at Yugi, he knew the other had just noticed that exact fact, and just as Yugi burst from his place to run down the tunnel once more, the scream cut off abruptly, but it was definitely in front of them somewhere. He didn't have to run very far before he eventually saw someone lying unconscious on the ground just ahead of him.

_"It's a girl,"_ Yami said, watching curiously as Yugi ran towards her. Something poked at the back of Yami's mind as he looked down at her_, _but he brushed it aside as they approached the girl.

Yugi finally reached the person and as he knelt down beside her, he guessed that she must have only been a couple years older than him. She had long dark hair, and a tattoo shaped like a heart on her chest, which Yugi found quite intriguing. "Hello? Can you hear me?" he asked carefully, not wanting to startle her. There was no response however, and he bit his lip. "Are you okay?" he asked again, carefully nudging her arm. Nothing again, not even a twitch. "What do you think happened to her?" he asked Yami, sounding worried as he looked up at the spirit.

_"I'm not sure,"_ Yami shook his head,_ "Anything is possible in here."_ Yami was currently trying to figure out what it was about this girl that had his mind suddenly alert. Something about her seemed strange, mysterious even. As he thought this over in his head, Yugi noticed his sudden concentration, and because their minds were linked, the boy picked up why it was Yami was suddenly acting strangely._  
_

"Do you recognise her from somewhere?" Yugi asked, sitting back as he curiously looked at the person in front of him.

_"I'm not sure," _Yami murmued, _"But don't you feel that?"_

Yugi looked up at the spirit with a puzzled expression, "Feel what?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

Yami seemed quite confused that Yugi wasn't on the same page as him, and he decided it was probably nothing. _"Never mind," _he sighed, _"__I'm probably just_ _delusional." _

Yugi chuckled, before moving to lean over the girl once more. "Hello?" He asked again, nudging her a little more.

_"Give her some time,"_ Yami urged, _"She may have gone through some trauma."_ Yugi sat and waited patiently, and that's when something strange happened, the Millennium Puzzle lit up.

"Huh?" Yugi looked down at it with furrowed eyebrows, "What's going on?" He didn't have time to wonder over what the puzzle was doing however, because the girl suddenly groaned and shifted where she was.

"Hm?" Yugi sat up and watched as she slowly opened her eyes, looking quite disoriented as she looked up at him, confusion clear in her brown irises.

"Wh-where am I?" she rasped, rubbing her head gingerly.

"Hey, she's alright!" Yugi cheered as he looked up at Yami, before realising that the girl would probably think he was crazy, and he turned back to her.

The girl blinked a few times, before speaking again. "Who are you? And where are we?" She sat up, and looked around with a puzzled expression. She didn't look too happy about her surroundings either.

"My name is Yugi," he said with a friendly smile, causing the girl to turn back to him.

"Rose," she replied, forcing a smile but still looking very confused.

"Are you alright?" Yugi asked her. She took a moment to look herself over, and concluded that she didn't sport any unknown injuries.

"I'm a bit freaked out," she admitted, "But apart from that I'm fine." Yugi gave her an encouraging smile. "So where are we?" she asked.

Yugi sighed and scratched his head, "Well it's kind of hard to explain," he began, "But we're trapped inside a virtual world run by a kid named Noah."

"A virtual world?" Rose asked, as her eyebrows disappeared under her bangs. "Well I guess that explains the weird tunnel..."

"Do you know how you got here?" Yugi asked.

"The last thing I remember is falling down a swirling vortex..." Rose said, her eyes distant as she searched her memory.

Yugi nodded, "Yeah that's how we got here, too," he said.

"We?" Rose looked down the tunnel, confused, as there was no one else around.

"Uh-" Yugi looked to Yami for a second who let out an amused chuckle, before the boy managed to redeem himself, "Me and my friends," he said, "We've been separated though and I'm trying to find them." Yugi went on to explain how he and his friends had been in the middle of a duel monsters tournament when they were pulled into Noah's virtual world and split up. He then mentioned how the big 5 were wanting to duel them all to gain their bodies to go back to the real world, so they needed to find them as soon as possible.

"That's nuts," Rose said once Yugi was finished. "But you've already defeated your opponent?"

Yugi nodded, "Yes, but it's Tea and Serenity that I'm worried about, they've barely dueled at all." They were suddenly caught off guard when a voice echoed down the tunnel, sounding painfully familiar to Yugi.

_"It's s-s-so c-cold!" _

"That's Tea!" Yugi said, alarmed. "Come on, let's go find her!" he helped Rose up, who nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry Yugi, we'll find your friends," she said with an encouraging smile. He returned the smile, before they both turned and darted off down the tunnel, running towards where they had heard the echo of Tea's voice.

...

Rose opened her eyes to see she was still surrounded by darkness, but this time instead of a tunnel it was a square room. She sat up, and saw Yugi next to her rubbing his head.

"Where are we?" he asked. Only a moment ago they had been running down the tunnel, when the floor had suddenly disappeared and they fell into blackness. Rose was already getting sick of being unconscious, and she shook the cobwebs out of her head as she looked around; on each of the four walls of the room was a door, and that was it.

"I don't know," she murmured "But I guess we have to go through one of these doors," Rose stood up, looking around at the four doors curiously. She swore she could faintly hear another voice speaking nearby, but there was nobody else there, so it couldn't have been logical. She shook her head, guessing it was the virtual world messing with her.

"Which door to choose?" Yugi asked himself, turning in cirlces. "If we don't pick one we're stuck here." Yugi picked a door and started off towards it.

_"Don't touch it," _Yami said to him, and Yugi stopped. _There's that muffled voice again, _Rose thought, _but where is it coming from? And what is it saying?_

"Did you hear that, too?" Rose asked Yugi. The boy seemed to be caught by surprise by her sudden question.

"Hear what?" Yugi asked, turning around to give her a confused look.

Rose started to regret asking at all, but no point in giving up now. "That voice, that's why you stopped, isn't it?" Rose hoped she wasn't going crazy, because Yugi was giving her quite an odd expression. _Bad idea, _she thought.

Yami was surprised, _"Does she mean me?" _he asked Yugi, who had an incredulous look on his face.

Yugi looked from Yami to Rose carefully, "…Can you hear another voice?" he asked her.

Rose found herself playing with the hem of her shirt, something she did when she was nervous or unsure. "I think so, unless I'm going crazy," Rose looked around, trying to find the owner of the mysterious voice, her eyebrows creased in worry.

_"Could it be possible that she can hear me even though I'm in the puzzle?"_ Yami asked Yugi.

Rose concentrated on the sound of the voice, and suddenly her tattoo started glowing. Either that or she was definitely going crazy. _What the...? _When she looked up, she could see Yami's spirit standing there next to Yugi.

"Oh my," Rose gasped, jumping back in surprise, "There are two of you!"

Yami's eyes widened in surprise, _"You can _see_ me?"_

"That's incredible," Yugi said, looking between the two of them with wide eyes. "Could it have something to do with that glow that came from her chest?" he asked Yami.

"How come you weren't there before, but now...oh wow this is hurting my head," Rose took a moment to sit down, "Am I going crazy?"

"You're not going crazy," Yugi said with a chuckle as he knelt down next to her. "It's kind of a long story that's hard to explain at the moment, but Rose this is Yami, he lives in my Millennium Puzzle."

"Milennium Puzzle?" The word sounded familiar, but she wasn't sure she'd ever heard of it. She guessed it was the ancient-looking item that hung around his neck.

_"I'm sorry if I startled you,"_ Yami said_, _giving her an apologetic smile,_ "Nobody else has been able to see me unless I've swapped places with Yugi."_

"No it's alright," Rose said getting up, "Lots of crazy things have happened to me in the past day or so anyway. We should be focusing on finding Tea."

_"Well we have to test all these doors for traps first,"_ Yami said. Yugi pulled out a coin and flicked it at the door he was facing. It bounced off and the shadow of a monster appeared before fading and disappearing.

"Testing doors is definitely smart," Yugi said, looking at the coin that now sat at his feet.

_"It's true,"_ Yami said, _"We won our duel, but I sense a whole new game has just begun…"_

_"It's s-s-so cold!"_

Apon hearing Tea's voice, Yugi called out to her as he spun around in circles, trying to figure out where it was coming from.

"How do we know where to find her?" Rose asked.

"We need to find out what part of this virtual world Noah sent her to," Yugi said, clearly frustrated that they had no idea where she was.

_"Noah's letting us hear her just to torture us,"_ Yami added, crossing his arms.

"What a cruel trick," Rose said, already quite disliking this Noah kid. _What on earth could he have against these people to trap them here?_ From what she'd experienced so far, Yugi was a good kid. She couldn't imagine someone like him angering anybody to this extent. Maybe it had something to do with one of his friends maybe...

"We have to break out of here and find her!" Yugi announced. In his impatience, he ran towards a door, but when he reached it, he was pushed back and he fell back onto the floor.

"Yugi! Are you alright?" Rose said, alarmed.

_"Don't panic, that's just what Noah wants you to do,"_ Yami said, kneeling next to Yugi. They looked up and discovered that there were stars above the doors, so Yugi summoned the Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress and defeated the monster behind the one star door. After repeating this a few times and getting absolutely nowhere, they discovered they needed to defeat all the one, two, three and four star monsters before they could get anywhere. They just hoped they were going in the right direction.

* * *

So because TMH was getting waaaay too long, I've split it into parts. This one will include chapters 1-24 and the next will go up to about chapter 50 and then there should only be one part after that which will be where we get to season 5 (but it'll be different ;)) and when i originally wrote this story the chapters were very badly written, so I'm currently going through and fixing them up (you'll probably notice where I'm up to :P) so yeah, just be aware of that, but it obviously gets better naturally further along anyway :) Hope you like it! Soo much thought has been put into this story I don't even know where I got the time to think this all up :P But it's all leading up to part 3 which i'm super excited to write! So I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it! :D

PharaohsThrone :)


	2. Chapter 2 - The Wrath Of Rostrevor

**Chapter 2 - The Wrath of Rostrevor**

A vast wasteland of nothing but ice and water stretched out in all directions. The temperature had dropped considerably to match the surroundings, and clouds blanketed the sky, making the whole scene looked shadowed and mysterious. As Rose and Yugi walked out onto the frozen land, having managed to escape the door maze, they thought that these new surroundings looked anything but virtual. Soon these thoughts were thrown to the side though, as Yugi caught sight of his brunette friend, appearing to have just reigned victorious in her duel.

"Tea!" Yugi called out in relief, almost slipping on the ice as he moved to run over to her. Rose followed suit, running after her new friend as he made his way over to the girl who must have been Tea.

"Yugi!" The brunette's eyes lit up as she turned around, and embraced him happily once he reached her. "I almost became a human ice-pop!" she exclaimed, letting him go. Her eyes then landed on the girl who had followed Yugi over, and an uncertain feeling settled in the bottom of her stomach. "Hi there." Rose gave Tea a friendly smile, and Yugi instantly jumped into the introductions.

"Oh! Tea, this is Rose. I came across her just after I defeated Gansley; she helped me find you," Yugi explained in his usual light tone.

Tea turned to the girl, giving her a friendly smile despite her slight suspicion. "Nice to meet you."

Rose returned the smile, "The feeling is mutual." She then turned back to Yugi, "So what's the go now?"

Yugi took a moment to look around, an unsure look on his face, "Now we have to find Joey, Tristan, Duke, Serenity and the Kaiba brothers."

Rose raised her eyebrows, "Wow, you have more friends than I thought," she joked.

Tea then stepped in, eager to find the rest of the gang, "So which direction should me go in?"

Yugi turned back to her and shrugged, "It probably doesn't matter," he said. "Noah is controlling this world, so where we end up will be his decision."

The boy in question was watching this all unfold from his seat, a smirk plastered on his face. "Right you are, Yugi. Now as for our newest guest..." he thought for a moment, before a brilliant idea came to mind, and his eyes lit up with mischief. "This gives me an opportunity to test out my new virtual duelists that I created…"

...

Just as Yugi thought, the ice waste land seemed to go on forever, just like everything else in this god forsaken virtual environment. The three teens must have been walking for close to an hour, and still there was no sign of anything new. As well as this, despite their moving at a decent pace, the temperature was much too low for the attire they were all wearing, and Rose felt like her dark jeans were giving her no warmth whatsoever. For all she knew, they could have been walking along the north pole for real.

Yugi had his arms folded across his chest in an attempt to keep in his minimal body heat. "I'd give anything for a hot chocolate," he said, shivering.

Rose was in a similar position, as she held her leather jacket tight around her shoulders. "Just think of a nice warm bubble bath," she said, her teeth chattering as she walked.

Tea sighed, wishing that she had at least worn long pants, "That's kind of hard to imagine when I can't feel my toes," she muttered, looking down at her open sandals with regret.

Yugi breathed into his hands, before crossing them over his chest once more, "We just have to keep moving," he said, "hopefully we'll be able to find refuge somewhere."

Tea seemed to be at the end of her tolerance for the ice wasteland. "I'd rather that I was standing over a pit of fire than this," she whined, throwing her head back momentarily. When she looked back in front of her though, she almost jumped in surprise. A moment ago, there had been nothing but ice in front of her, but now there was a door.

"That looks the same as the door that lead us here," Rose noted, turning to Yugi as they stopped in front of it.

"Finally," Yugi said in relief. "Let's hope this leads to the others," He carefully walked up to the door and opened it, but all they could see was a blinding light. When they walked through, the temperature changed drastically. It was too bright to know where they were, but it was very hot. Tea could feel her toes thawing and she hummed her delight with the new temperature.

As the bright light dimmed, the three teens heard a voice echo around them, a deep, menacing sound. "Did someone say, 'pit of fire'?" Rose, Yugi and Tea noticed that the ice wasteland had been replaced with another wasteland comprised of rock, but they couldn't figure out why it felt like they were in the middle of a volcano.

"I don't see a-" Tea had started to say, but she was interrupted when the ground started to split right between Rose and the other two. Rose let out a startled noise as the ground moved below her, and by the time she had regained her balance, she was already too far away from Yugi and Tea to be able to jump the gap.

"Rose!" Yugi called out, but as soon as he reached his hand out, flames erupted from the split in the ground, roaring to life and as if they were cackling with laughter. Yugi instantly drew his hand back, narrowly missing getting burnt.

"What's going on?" Rose called out as the earth around her crumbled even more, revealing more flames. Where they had come from however, nobody knew. Rose backed away from the inferno only to find the ground crumbling behind her as well. She jumped back and realised she was now surrounded on all sides by the blaze, and had her own chunk of land only a few meters wide. She shielded her eyes as the flames licked up above her head, before settling down once more and sitting comfortably just below the ground.

"This isn't good," Rose muttered as she looked around her. "Which is worse, death by fire or frostbite?" she asked herself.

"Don't worry Rose!" Yugi called out, "We'll find a way to get you off of there!"

"She won't be going anywhere!" A loud booming voice sounded from somewhere in the distance. Everyone looked around to try and find where it came from, but the fire had created a considerable amount of smoke, and thus it was hard to see who was talking.

_"It's that voice from before,"_ Yami said, _"But where is it coming from?"_

Another chunk of earth emerged from the flames, about ten meters away from Rose. The first thing they noticed was that a man was standing on top of it, his features disguised by the smoke surrounding him. A laugh burst from his lips as he stood across from Rose, his arms folded over his chest. The smoke soon cleared to reveal a man much unlike the group that Yugi had seen just before they were thrown into this virtual abyss. He didn't look anything like a businessman, and he had a more rugged look about him, sporting dark hair and a small amount of stubble, while wearing jeans and a casual shirt.

"I am Rostrever." He was very tall and well built, with striking green eyes and a mischievous smirk. And nobody had a clue who he was.

"You aren't part of the Big 5," Tea said, crossing her arms.

"Very observant little girl," Rostrevor began, "No I may not be part of the big 5, but we have a common agenda: that being making sure you brats don't make it out of here with your bodies." He laughed again, and the flames burst up around him, but did not seem to faze him. "And I'm going to start with you, Rose!" He pointed across the chasm of fire, a devious smirk on his face.

"You leave her out of this!" Yugi called out, "It's us you want, not her!"

"Actually little boy, you are quite wrong," Rostrevor pointed out, "anybody who crosses my path here is subject to my wrath, so I suggest you pipe down."

Yugi balled his hands into fists at his side, "I'm not a little boy!" he yelled, and Rose watched on in awe as the millennium puzzle started glowing, and the person standing there changed. It was only very slight, but as Yami opened his eyes and glared across the chasm to Rostrevor, Rose was amazed that such an item existed. That's when she realised why she had recognised the boy in the first place.

_Yugi, as in Yugi Mutou, the King of games! _

"Now you listen here, Rostrevor," Yami's voice boomed, "If you want to pick a fight, then pick a fight with me." Rose remembered watching the finals for Duelist Kingdom, where Yugi had gone up against his best friend, and won. Hearing Yami's strong baritone voice echo across the vast space only confirmed her thoughts. It sounded just like the man she had watched on the TV in the orphanage, as he was crowned King of games. _How did I miss that?!_ She thought to herself. She would have thought that she'd be familiar enough with the figure head to know him when she met him, but it appeared not. Then again, she had been quite disoriented and her thoughts had recently been occupied with the events of the last few hours before she woke up in this virtual world.

"It's cute how you're trying to protect Rose and all, but she has no choice in the matter, now let's get this over with!" Rostrever let out another laugh as a duel disk appeared on Rose's arm, and she turned to face the man across from her.

"Alright, Rostrevor," she said, raising her voice, "Let's duel."

"Wait a second Rose," Yami grabbed her attention.

_"You don't have to do this,"_ Yugi said, his spirit now hovering beside Yami.

Rose looked down at the duel disk on her arm, "Yugi," she said, "I appreciate you standing up for me, but I can handle this myself. Besides, I had to show you my mad dueling skills at some point," she then smiled at him, and Yami nodded.

"Alright, be careful," he said.

"Always am," Rose turned back to Rostrevor, "Are you ready to get your ass handed to you?"

Rostrevor laughed at her, "I'd be more worried about my own defeat if I were you, as the steaks of this duel are no different to the others. If I win, you shall be trapped in this virtual world forever!" Rose was beginning to think that this was some lame video game with the amount of evil laughter coming from this man.

She sighed to herself, before deciding to join in on the banter. "Shame that that's not going to happen," she said, narrowing her eyes at him as a duel disk appeared on his own arm.

Yugi looked over at Rose, who seemed to be astonishingly confident, and the duel hadn't even started yet. _"Hey look, that heart thing on her chest is glowing again,"_ he said.

"It looks like a tattoo," Yami observed, seeing the intricate design only slightly hidden beneath the neckline of her shirt. "but tattoos shouldn't glow like that..."

_"I'll say, but I hope her over confidence doesn't hinder her game,"_ Yugi commented. _"We don't know anything about this guy or his dueling tactics."_

Yami glanced down at the boy beside him, "I think she'll be just fine. Trust me Yugi, I can sense almost an ageless intelligence about her. Besides, we don't know anything about _her_ dueling strategies either... "


	3. Chapter 3 - The Wrath Of Rostrevor (2)

**Chapter 3 - The Wrath of Rostrevor (2)**

Rostrevor stood with tall confidence as the bank of cards appeared in front of him, "Time to pick your deck," he announced to Rose with a smirk, "I'd pick wisely if I were you."

"I always do," Rose replied confidently, tapping cards rapidly as they passed her eyes. She knew she wouldn't be able to pick the same cards she had in her usual deck, so as well as the few she found that were hers, she chose some familiar cards that she had seen in action before. Finished with constructing her deck, she smiled when it appeared in her duel disk. She was actually quite happy that she got a chance to try out some new cards that were very well known thanks to the man watching her from across the chasm. It was still hard to comprehend how she managed to run into Yugi here in the first place, but that could be sorted out later. For now, she had a duel to win. "So, let's get this duel started," she said, a flare of excitement in her eyes.

Rostrevor laughed at her eagerness, "Don't jump the gun Rosie, our new duelling rules state that you must pick a deck master to stand by your side," he explained. Rose would have scrunched her nose at the nickname, but she was more concerned at what else he had said.

"Deck master?" she asked, confused.

_"Rose wasn't here when the new rules were explained,"_ Yugi's eyes widened as he realised. _"How will she know what to do?"_

Rostrevor laughed at her, his voice echoing around the chasm. Rose was sure she could see the flames below crackling along with his mocking tone. "You're already falling behind," he sneered, "Seems you don't know anything about duelling in this world, this will be an easy win for me." Rose rolled her eyes, his over inflated ego needed to be popped, and she was determined to do it herself.

"Rose," Yami caught her attention, "Your deck master is a monster of your choice who cannot be played, but each has it's own special ability that can help you out. If it weren't for my deck master, I wouldn't have won my duel against Gansley."

Rose flashed him a smile, "Thanks!" _That sounds pretty cool_, she thought, _having a monster as my deck master. But I bet I don't get to see their abilities until after I pick the monster._ "Don't worry Rostrevor," Rose said, turning back to him. "I'm a fast learner. So who's your deck master?"

Rostrevor scoffed, "It's a _what_, not a _who_," he spat. "But say hello to Command Knight!" Rostrevor motioned beside him as the Command Knight rose up out of the flames to stand beside him. "What's yours?" Rose narrowed her eyes at him for his remark. To her, Duel Monsters meant a lot more than a bunch of pictures on cards. But obviously it was not the case for the man she was duelling.

Rose pulled out her deck and her eyes skimmed the cards. After a moment of thought, she picked her monster. "My Chaos Sorcerer shall fit the job," she said, pulling out the card with a confident nod.

_"The Chaos Sorcerer?_" Yugi asked, having not heard of the card before. There were so many monsters in the game by now that it was almost impossible to know of every card.

Yami nodded, "Yes, a powerful card," he said, "I can see that Rose admires it deeply. He shall serve her well as her deck master." Yugi nodded, watching the sorcerer materialise beside Rose. He then saw her turn to the monster with a grin, almost as if she wanted to say something, but decided not to. She seemed much too happy though, and Rostrevor was determined to fix that. He laughed at her choice for a deck master, and Rose simply shrugged it off. She had her reasons for choosing this card, and she was confident that it was a good decision.

"My magicians never let me down," she said, "So let's get this duel started already."

"Very well, my move first." Rostrevor held his nose in the air as he drew his 5 cards. He then summoned his Achacha Archer [1200/600] in attack mode. "And the best thing about this little beauty is that when it is summoned it immediately takes a chunk out of your life points!" Rostrevor grinned over at Rose who had only just finished drawing her cards.

Rose scowled as her life points fell to 3500, "That was not cool," she muttered.

Tea was still standing next to Yami across the chasm of fire. "Rose hasn't even made her first move and she's out of 500 life points!" she exclaimed. Although she had been a bit iffy about Rose at first, the girl had grown on her, and she would hate to think that this new friend of theirs would get trapped in this world forever.

"Not the best start," Yami agreed, watching the duel with his arms folded.

Rose started by playing Celtic Guardian [1400/1200] in attack mode. She couldn't help but grin as the familiar beast rose up in front of her. It was one thing seeing it on a screen, but having such a well known monster fighting for her was even more exciting.

Tea instantly recognised the card. "Hey, don't you have that card, Yugi?" she asked, turning to the man beside her.

"Yes, I do," Yami replied. "That's commonly _my_ opening move." They watched on as Rose declared an attack on Rostrevor's archer, and it was easily destroyed.

"Nice move, but you'll have to do a lot better than that to defeat me," Rostrevor announced. He then summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, [1600/1000], and used him to attack Rose's Guardian. As it was destroyed and she was placing the card in her graveyard, Rose glared at her opponent.

"Alright, my turn," she announced, drawing from her deck. "This outta spruce things up a bit, I'll summon my Ancient Elf [1450/1200] in attack mode." She placed the card down on her duel disk, grinning at the card in her hand.

"What is she thinking?" Tea said, "She only has 1450 attack points!"

Rostrevor burst out in laughter, "You think that little Elf can defeat my Warrior? That's pathetic."

"I'm not done yet," Rose said, "I have a little magic card called Book of Secret Arts, this gives my elf 300 additional attack and defence points, making it stronger than your Warrior." she smirked, "Ancient Elf, attack!" Rose's elf lurched forwards and rid the field of Breaker, thus leaving him defenceless once more. "So much for your warrior."

Rostrevor clenched his teeth, "I'm only getting warmed up. Prepare for the _real_ duel Rosie." He cracked hi knuckles, and Rose was only finding the banter amusing, not anywhere near threatening.

"Bring it on, old man," Rose said, smirking as she gave him a 'come hither' gesture with her hand. Rostrevor made a 'tch' noise as he drew from his deck once more.

"Now I'll activate this handy magic card called Chain Summon! It lets me summon 2 monsters in one move. Come forth Achacha Chanbara [1400/400] and Gogo Golem! [1800/1500]" Great, two big headed monsters, Rose thought. "And I have another handy magic card called Assault Armour, this one will raise my Gogo Golem's attack points by 300, Giving him an attack strength of 2100!"

"Ah, crud," Rose sighed, looking at the field.

"Now Gogo Golem, destroy her Elf!" Rostrevor declared his attack, pointing at her only monster. Rose flinched as her elf was destroyed, bringing her life points down to 2950. But the assault wasn't over. Rostrevor then attacked her directly with Achacha Chanbara. His monster slashed at her life points, and the force of the blow caused her to fall back, landing on the ground with a hard thud.

"Rose!" Yami called out, "Are you alright?"

Lifting herself up, Rose gave him a thumbs up, "I'll be fine." _Rostrevor has already reduced my life points to 1550, whereas I've barely been able to scratch his,_ Rose thought. _I have to find out a way to beat him, or I may not be around to find out why I can see and hear somebody that nobody else can._ She barely understood the whole idea of two souls sharing the one body, who up until this point Rose had thought was the same person, and she wanted to stick around to find out what that was.

Rose drew her next card, _Just what I need!_ "Alright, seems Ancient Elf was sent to the graveyard, I can summon any monster from my hand onto the field, and I choose Curse of Dragon [2000/1500]. I'll also lay one card face down and end my turn." She stood back with a sigh, waiting to see what Rostrevor's next move would be.

"Interesting move," Rostrevor said, drawing from his deck. He sacrificed his Achacha Chanbara to summon Chthonian Emperor Dragon [2400/1500]. Now he had two monsters with attack points more than 2000, meaning he could easily destroy her Dragon and win the duel in this turn. But Rose was betting on him not attacking.

"Well your monster looks like it packs a punch, so how about you prove it?" she said, "You can win the duel if you get rid of my dragon."

Rostrevor shook his head, "I see your plan Rose, but that trap card isn't going to fool me. You're a terrible liar and I'm not going to fall for your little trick by attacking, instead I'll relinquish that card next turn," Rostrevor said with a smirk. "Your move."

Rose just laughed.

Rostrevor's confident facade crumbled, "Why are you laughing?!" He demanded angrily.

Rose calmed down to explain. "Because, that wasn't a trap card that I set, I didn't want you to attack me at all," she explained with a grin.

"What?!" The look on Rostrevor's face was priceless. The fact that he could have actually won if he had attacked was obviously dawning on him in this moment.

"So thank you, for falling _straight_ into my trap," Rose said with a grin, "My face down card is actually polymerisation!"

"Oh yeah! Great move Rose!" Tea cheered.

_"Yes!"_ Yugi said. _"Well done Rose!" _

"Now I can fuse together my Curse of Dragon and Gaia, the Fierce Knight to create Gaia, the Dragon Champion!" [2600/ 2100] Rose grinned as her newest monster formed.

"Hey Yugi, isn't that one of your moves?" Tea asked.

"It is," Yami replied. "She's playing just like I would."

Tea crossed her arms, "You think she knows who you are?" she asked, referring to his Duel Monsters title.

"I'm not sure," Yami considered. "Recently the only people I've run into who recognise me have demanded an autograph," he chuckled. "Perhaps she just has similar strategies."

Rose pointed to Rostrevor's monster, "Now my Dragon Champion, attack his Gogo Golem!" she declared, grinning as her monster lurched forward. With one swift movement, Gaia slashed through the beast, and it burst into billions of tiny pieces. "Your Golem is destroyed," Rose said with a smirk.

"Tis but a scratch to my life points," Rostrevor said, regaining his composure, "If I were you I'd be more worried about my own life points, especially with my next monster."

"Just summon it," Rose said with a fake yawn. "Your threats are getting old." If this guy was going to act like a dick then Rose wasn't going to give him the satisfaction.

"Very well," Rostrevor drew his card, before sacrificing his Dragon to summon Frostosaurus [2600/1600].

"Good move, now we're equal," Rose pointed out.

"Not for long," Rostrevor said with a menacing smirk, "Because I have the magic card Beast Fangs! Now its attack is raised by 200, giving my beast a total attack strength of 2800!" He crossed his arms with a smug smirk.

"Double crud," Rose muttered.

"Now Frostosaurus! Destroy her Dragon Champion!" Rostrevor's dinosaur destroyed her monster with an incredibly powerful attack, and the remaining force even caused her deck master to stumble as Rose was thrown backwards once more.

_"Rose!"_ Yugi called out in concern.

"I'm okay," she called back, getting back up onto her feet with a wince. She wiped the sweat off of her forehead as she stood up again, before brushing the dirt from her jeans, feeling her muscles complain at the movement. The attacks from his monsters had certainly weakened her, but she still had determination. The fire around her wasn't helping either; as soon as she had wiped away the sweat it seemed there was more on her forehead already. Giving up on that endeavour, Rose glared at the inferno that seemed to be laughing at her only a metre away, before standing up straight once more. If she acted like it wasn't affecting her, Rostrevor can't taunt her for it.

"She's struggling," Yami observed. "But she has incredible inner strength."

_"We have to help her," Yugi said. "She can't lose this duel!"_

"Rose," Yami grabbed her attention. She turned to him at the sound of her name, and saw the confident smile on his face. "You can still win this duel, don't stop believing in your deck, your cards will give you the strength you need."

Rose returned the smile and nodded, before turning back to Rostrevor, "Alright, this duel isn't over."

"Oh it will be soon," Rostrevor announced, as the flames around him danced with his laughter. "And you'll be trapped here forever!"

Rose narrowed her eyes at him, _not if I can help it,_ she thought.


	4. Chapter 4 - The Wrath Of Rostrevor (3)

**Chapter 4 - The Wrath of Rostrevor (3)**

"Silly girl," Rostrevor laughed at Rose, "You should have given up the minute you started this duel."

"Well I won't, and my faith will reward me," Rose drew from her deck. "I summon Queen's Knight [ATK 1500/ DEF 1600] in defence mode and place one card face down, that'll do for now."

"Pathetic move if you ask me," Rostrevor laughed, "I'll summon my Electric Snake [ATK 800/DEF 600], and shall attack your Queen's Knight with Frostosaurus!"

"Sorry to burst your bubble Rostrevor, but you've activated my trap," Rose said with a smirk.

"Trap?!"

"Yep, Poseidon Wave, it negates the attack completely, you're just lucky that I don't have any water monsters on the field otherwise you would have lost some life points, too."

"No matter," Rostrevor said, scowling at her, "I'll just use Electric Snake's special ability to hit your life points directly!"

_"No!" _Yugi said _"That means she'll be down to her last 500 life points!" _

Rose flinched as the Snake took 800 of her life points, "One more hit like that and I'm gone," she muttered. "Luckily his snake goes to the graveyard after it attacks..." She looked at her hand, "But that gives me an idea..."

"Rose can still win this, right?" Tea said to Yugi.

"Of course she can," Yami said, "Besides, would she have that grin on her face if she thought she was going to lose?"

"Huh?" Tea looked over to Rose. "She _is_ grinning…But why?"

"We'll see," Yami said.

"I activate the magic card Monster Reborn to bring back your Electric Snake, and I summon King's Knight to the field! [ATK1600/DEF 1400] Now that I have both King's Knight and Queen's Knight on the field, I can automatically summon Jack's Knight! [ATK 1900/DEF 1000] And now for some payback, I'll use your own Electric Snake to attack _your_ life points directly!" Rose announced.

Rostrevor cowered away from the snake as his life points dropped to 2350.

"Not so mighty now, are you?" Rose said with a smirk.

"Well actually, I still have over 2000 life points!" Rostrevor announced with a laugh. "Whereas you are one attack away from defeat!"

"We'll see," Rose said, "But not for 3 turns, because I activate Swords of Revealing Light," she said, placing the card on her duel disk.

_"Yes!" _Yugi said.

"Your only postponing your defeat," Rostrevor said with a shrug, "there's nothing you could do in 3 turns to defeat me," he said confidently. _I can't wait to wipe that smirk off of his face, _Rose thought.

"Then make your move," she said.

"Very well, I'll just lay one card face down and end my turn," Rostrevor smirked. "Try your hardest, but you'll never destroy my Frostosaurus in 3 turns!" He laughed maniacally.

"We'll see," Rose said, drawing from her deck.

Over the next three turns Rose managed to sacrifice her Queen's Knight, King's Knight and Jack's Knight for Dark Magician girl, Dark Magician and Chaos Command Magician. She was also able to destroy Rostrevor's face down card and prevent him from playing another monster with her Trap Hole card. Now he only had his Frostosaurus on the field and one card face down when she finished her third turn.

Rostrevor burst out into laughter, "_That's_ all you can do in three turns? What a waste, your tiny little defence of magicians can do nothing to stop me! Now that your Swords of Revealing Light are gone I can attack and destroy you! Especially when I have Monster Reborn to bring back my Electric Snake!" Rostrevor announced, laughing maniacally.

_"NO!" _Yugi said, _"That'll wipe out the rest of her life points!" _

"Rose can't lose this!" Tea said.

_I know you can still win Rose, _Yami thought, _don't prove me wrong. _

"It's over!" Rostrevor laughed, calling his attack on her life points.

_"Rose!" _

"No!" Yugi and Tea yelled. The blast blinded their eyes and they all looked away. When they were able to see again, they saw Rose lying on the ground.

_"No...she lost," _Yugi looked away, trying not to think of what that meant.

"No Yugi," Yami said, "look closer."

_"Huh?" _Yugi looked up; her monsters were still on the field.

"Her life points!" Tea said, "They haven't changed!"

"What's this?!" Rostrevor said, "That should have obliterated the last of your life points!"

"_Should _have, but didn't," Rose said, slowly getting up, wincing as she did so. Her strength was drained, but she still had the determination to win. She ignored the flames around her as she looked up again. "I activated my deck master's special ability, by choosing 2 cards in my hand and eliminating them from the game, I negated the damage of your attack."

"Yes!" Tea said.

_"Excellent move, Rose!" _

"Thanks guys!" Rose smiled.

"Well done," Yami nodded, "Now finish him off."

"With pleasure," Rose said. She looked at her deck, _please; give me the card that I need. _She closed her eyes and drew, and when she opened her eyes, a wide grin spread across her face. "Yes! Now you're going to meet my ultimate spell caster. To summon him I must sacrifice 2 level 6 or higher spell casters, so thank you my dark magicians." Tea thought she was imagining things, but she swore she saw both the Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl nod at Rose, before they disappeared as sacrifices. "So now I can summon the greatest of all spell casters! The Sorcerer of Dark Magic!" [ATK 3200/DEF 2800]

"The Sorcerer of what?!" Rostrevor stepped back, his eyes wide in horror.

"Sorcerer of Dark Magic?" Tea asked.

"An extremely powerful card," Yami said in awe, "It is indeed the greatest of all spell casters."

_"It has enough power to destroy the Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Yugi exclaimed._

"That's incredible," Tea said.

"And my sorcerer has a unique ability. For every one of it's fallen comrades your Frostosaurus loses 500 points," Rose explained.

"No!" Rostrevor said, "You just sacrificed 2 of them!"

"Exactly," Rose said. "So your monster now only has 1600 attack points. Now my Sorcerer, destroy his Frostosaurus!"

"Not so fast!" Rostrevor said, trying to act like he wasn't flustered. "You've activated my trap, Mirror Force! Ha!"

"I'm afraid that won't work," Rose smirked. "My sorcerer is so powerful that he can stop the activation of trap cards and destroy them!"

"No!" Rostrevor said as his trap disappeared.

"That means my Sorcerer can obliterate your dinosaur!" Rostrevor cowered at the sight of his monster being destroyed. "Your Frostosaurus is no more," Rose said, smiling as her new monster came back and stood in front of her.

"Not Frostosaurus! That's one of my best cards!" Rostrevor mourned the loss of his dinosaur as his life points dropped to 1600.

"Don't think I'm finished yet," Rose said, "I also have my Chaos Command Magician, remember?"

"But-That will obliterate the rest of my life points!" Rostrevor wailed.

"Good to see that you can do math," Rose said. "Now, Chaos Command Magician, attack his life points directly and end this duel!"

"No!" Rostrevor's yell echoed as his life points fell to 0.

"Thank you, Chaos Sorcerer," Rose said to her deck master. He nodded, before disappearing.

_"Yes! Well done Rose!" Yugi cheered. _

"Alright!" Tea jumped up in triumph.

"Excellent duelling," Yami nodded.

Rose fell down to her knees in exhaustion, "I don't remember any duel taking this much strength out of me before..." She watched the sweat off her forehead drip onto the ground as she tried to regain her breath, but the heat of the flames around her were almost unbearable by this point.

"This can't be happening! How can I lose?!" Rostrevor was on his knees screaming up at the sky. "I can't be beaten by a little girl! You little runt!" Rose looked up just as the flames around her burst upwards, encasing her in heat and smoke.

_"Rose!" _Yugi called out to her. _"We have to get her out of there!" _

"Rostrevor!" Yami boomed, "Stop this madness! Losing a duel doesn't mean you can play dirty."

Rostrevor seemed to have lost his mind, for he was laughing like a mad man, "I can do whatever I want!"

Rose could feel the flames closing in on her even more, and as the smoke filled her lungs she was finding it harder and harder to breathe. She put her hands on the ground in front of her trying to find air, but there was none. The world was swirling around her.

_"Rose!" _Yugi called out, _"Are you alright?" _They could no longer see her as the flames had surrounded her.

"Rostrevor!" Yami's strong voice echoed across to him, "This has gone on long enough! I demand that you stop this!"

"Why should I?" Rostrevor yelled in reply.

Yami was about to call on the power of the millennium puzzle, when a bright light came from inside the wall of flames that Rose was encased in. Yami and Tea watched on in awe as the wall of light burst through the flames, causing them to recede. It was an incredible sight. It then shrunk into a tiny spark and went back into Rose's chest, right where her heart shaped tattoo was. She appeared to be lying on the ground, unconscious.

_"What was that?" _Yugi asked.

"I don't know, but we have to get across to her," Yami said. Just as he said that, a bridge appeared between them and Rose.

_"Rostrevor!" _A familiar voice boomed from above. "_I created you to do one thing and that was to defeat Rose! And in her defeating you, you've done nothing but show me how much of a mistake that was! You have no right to be altering the conditions of _MY _virtual world!" _

"But, Master Noah, I-"

_"That's enough! I created you and thus I can destroy you!"_

They watched on as Rostrevor faded into nothing, and Noah's voice disappeared.

"Well that was convenient," Tea said. They both ran across the bridge to Rose, and Yami reached her first.

"Rose," he said, kneeling down next to her, "Can you hear me?" she didn't respond. "Rose?"

_"Please wake up," _Yugi pleaded.

"She's been almost completely drained of her energy," Yami said, putting his hand on her forehead. She looked incredibly pale and lifeless.

"Is she going to be okay?" Tea asked.

"I'm not going to accept otherwise," Yami replied. He looked to her tattoo, and could sense something mysterious and ancient. Suddenly his millennium puzzle started glowing.

"What's this?" Yami said, surprised. "The puzzle appears to be drawn to her tattoo." He watched as Rose's heart tattoo started glowing, and the colour slowly returned to her cheeks. "The millennium puzzle is returning her strength! I had no idea it had that power," he said staring down at her.

_"That's incredible!" _Yugi said.

They watched on in awe as the puzzle returned Rose's strength and she no longer looked pale or lifeless, only as if she had taken a short nap.

"...Rose?" Yami carefully put his hand on her shoulder, hoping that it would wake her up.


	5. Chapter 5 - In Search Of The Past

**Chapter 5 - In Search Of The Past**

Rose wasn't sure if she was awake or asleep, or between consciousness. She couldn't move, all of her energy was drained, and her mind was fading into darkness. The threat that had been choking her lungs had disappeared, but she was still falling out of consciousness. That's when Rose felt something warming her chest. She must have been dreaming she thought, because even though her eyes were closed she could see something. Something bright, it was beaming light all over her, restoring her energy. The light faded slightly and she could see what it was, _The Millennium Puzzle! But, why can I feel a warm feeling where my tattoo is? What's the puzzle doing to it? It's almost as if the puzzle is drawn to it…_

She now knew she was no longer fighting to regain consciousness, and she could feel her strength returning. She slowly managed to open her eyes…

Yami was leaning over her, his eyes wide with wonder.

_"Rose!"_ She could see Yugi's spirit beside him, beaming from ear to ear with relief.

"Are you alright?" Yami asked her.

"I'm feeling a lot better now than I was a few moments ago," she said, sitting up. She rubbed the side of her head, "I don't know if I was imagining things or not, but it seemed like the millennium puzzle..."

"Restored your strength?" Yami finished for her, "It seems so. You weren't imagining it."

"Wow, that puzzle of yours must be quite handy," she said, admiring the ancient looking artifact.

"It can be," Yami smiled, before helping her up. "That was an excellent duel Rose; you duelled with honour and respect for your cards. And they will serve you well in return." Rose smiled and nodded, and Yami went back into the puzzle.

"Now let's go find the others!" Yugi said. They all agreed and set off for the rest of the gang.

...

After travelling across the barren wasteland for a while, the three of them were getting quite bored.

"There's nothing here!" Tea complained, "Are we just going to be walking forever?"

"Hey Tea, remember the last time you complained about something? Rose was almost consumed by fire," Yugi laughed.

"True, sorry about that Rose..." Tea scratched the back of her head.

Rose chuckled, "It's all good. We kicked Rostrevor's butt anyway."

"More like you kicked his butt," Tea laughed. "That was an awesome turn around! I wish I could duel like that."

_"Yugi, ever since Rose's duel with Rostrevor, I've been sensing something mysterious and ancient about her tattoo, it almost seems as if the puzzle is attracted to it,"_ Yami noted.

Rose overheard this, "Really?"

"Huh? Who are you talking to?" Tea asked her with a confused look.

Rose realised Tea couldn't hear Yami, "Uh..." she wasn't sure if Tea would think she was crazy if she explained it.

"Rose can see the spirit of the puzzle," Yugi chirped from beside her.

"Wow, really? Even when he's in the puzzle?" Tea asked, looking back to Rose.

"I can see him right now," Rose said, turning to smile at him.

_"I don't think I'll ever get used to that,"_ Yami said with a chuckle. He did like the idea though, knowing that Yugi wasn't the only person he could communicate with while in the puzzle. He was quite curious about her tattoo however, ever since her duel he was trying to think of a logical explanation for it's behaviour. So knowing what Yami was thinking, Yugi decided to ask a few questions.

"Hey Rose," Yugi grabbed her attention, "When did you get that tattoo?"

Rose instinctively lifted her hand up to her chest where the tattoo was, and her eyes became distant. "Well," she began, "This may sound kind of silly but...I don't actually remember." She turned to look at them with a half-hearted smile.

_"You don't?"_ Yami asked, surprised.

"I don't remember a lot of things, actually," Rose admitted with a sigh, "It's quite annoying."

"What do you mean?" Tea asked, "Do you have short term memory loss or something?"

"No not that, it's a bit more complicated..." Rose said, kicking the ground with her foot as she walked.

"Care to tell us?" Yugi asked politely, "You don't have to, but now I'm curious," he said with a smile.

"Well, alright," Rose said. She sighed and thought about where to begin. "Okay bear with me here," she said. "Truth is, I don't know anything about my life before a few years ago."

_"Your memory only goes back a few years_?" Yami asked, astonished.

Rose nodded, "I woke up in a Brisbane hospital with no recollection whatsoever of any of the events beforehand. The only reason I knew what my name was, was because I was wearing this necklace," she lifted up the golden necklace that had 'Rose' written on it in cursive writing.

"Wow," Yugi said, gazing at the necklace, "So if you didn't have that necklace, you wouldn't have even remembered your own name?" he asked.

"Mhmm, the doctors told me I was hit by a drunk driver on the sidewalk one night, and I ended up wedged between the car's bonnet and a tree. Scary part is, they thought I was dead at first."

Tea gasped, as a shiver went down her spine. She wasn't very fond of the mention of death. "That's terrible."

"What did your family do?" Yugi asked.

"Well, that's the next part of the story. Seems I had no memory of anything at all, they had to do all the research to find my next of kin. Apparently there was no record of me in the Brisbane area, and they couldn't find anybody who claimed they knew me. Nobody. No family, no friends, no neighbours, nothing."

"Nobody?" Yugi asked in astonishment.

"Nobody. They said there were a few bags filled with clothes and stuff found next to where I was hit, so they eventually assumed I was an orphan who ran away. So, they tried to calculate my age." She laughed then, "This is the funny part. With all of their examinations and computer scanners and technology they couldn't come up with a reasonable age, their systems kept showing them some ridiculous number, so they resorted to guessing an age by looking at how certain parts of my body had formed."

"How do they do that?" Tea asked.

Rose shrugged, "They just did scientific stuff with samples they had of my skin and whatnot, before guessing that I must have been somewhere around 21. They couldn't have been sure though, so to be safe they just dumped me in a random orphanage."

"That's pretty crazy," Tea said, "That those computers couldn't figure out your age. So you don't know for sure how old you are?"

"Nope. I don't mind, actually," Rose said. She did looked only a few years older than Tea and Yugi, so they assumed the doctors guesses must have been pretty close.

"So what happened at the orphanage?" Yugi asked.

"Well, they weren't really sure what to do with me at first. At the orphanage if someone turns 18 before they are adopted they can choose to leave the orphanage and get on with their lives, but they didn't know how old I was, and it was obvious I wasn't ready to just be thrown into the real world. They decided to make me do everything for myself to make sure that I could leave and do what I wanted. I had to cook for myself and wash my own clothes and just look after myself basically. I also had to get a job, that wasn't fun. But it was all for the day that I could go and do my own thing, maybe rent an apartment and go to uni and normal stuff like that."

"Did you make any friends at the orphanage?" Tea asked.

"Well no, actually I didn't. Everyone kind of avoided me. It seemed like I was some kind of alien to them. I was that weird amnesia kid, not to mention I was probably the oldest person there. I didn't really feel like I belonged anyway. I had no family, no friends, no real purpose. It really got me down sometimes. I always felt like there was something missing, you know? I mean, apart from not having a family. I kept thinking that there was something I had before I lost my memory that I missed, but I didn't know what it was, it almost drove me crazy. But I tried to keep myself busy. I passed the time by playing Duel Monsters, and collecting new cards to strengthen my deck," she was about to continue, when Yugi jumped in.

"That's really interesting," he said, "because most of the cards you played today, I have in my deck, too. Your strategy was so much like mine."

"Wow, really?" Rose asked. "That's pretty cool. But not all the cards I used today are the ones I have in my real deck."

"Well I bet your real deck is even better," Yugi laughed. "So did you ever get out of the orphanage?"

"Yeah, I moved into an apartment down the street but I haven't been there for long. I won a competition and used the prize money to go on a cruise around the world, but in the middle of the trip a fire broke out when everyone was sleeping and I didn't wake up in time."

"What do you mean?" Tea asked.

"Well, by the time I woke up and realised what was going on, all the escape boats were gone. I had to pull off a piece of wood I found to hold onto when the boat went down."

"That's terrible," Yugi gasped, "Then what happened?"

"All I remember is floating in the water for a while and then the seas got really rough and I lost the driftwood, and I know I blacked out. Next thing, I'm lying on top of some huge fortress in the middle of the ocean, half a word away from home."

_"That would be Noah's fortress that we were lured into,"_ Yami said.

"Where is your home?" Yugi asked.

"Back in Australia," she said, "But I wouldn't call it a home, really, I hate it there," she admitted.

"You shouldn't hate your home," Tea said.

"So what happened after you woke up?" Yugi asked, curious as to how she became part of Noah's mad virtual world.

"Well, I decided to have a look around, but all I found was a huge empty room, and suddenly the floor opened up and I plummeted into some swirling vortex, then I woke up here."

"Wow," Yugi said, "That's quite an interesting story."

"Yeah," Tea agreed.

_"You certainly seem to bounce back well after such an eventful few years,"_ Yami said.

Rose shrugged, "The whole thing doesn't bother me that much anymore. I mean, yeah it's annoying I don't remember anything, but I deal with that."

_"Did your tattoo act strangely at all when you were in the orphanage?"_ Yami asked.

"No, it never did anything weird, it was just a normal, heart shaped tattoo. I wish I knew what the meaning behind it was."

"Well try not to worry about that now. We have to figure out how we're going to get out of here and back home," Yugi said.

"I don't want to go home," Rose muttered. "I was an outcast there. But only a few hours here and I feel like I've known you guys for years."

_I too feel like I've known her for years..._ Yami thought to himself.


	6. Chapter 6 - Back To Battle City

**Chapter 6 - Back to Battle City**

After a long and strenuous adventure, Yugi and Kaiba woke up in their pods, having escaped Noah's virtual nightmare.

Kaiba sat up with a grunt, rubbing his head. "It's about time," he said.

"We're back in the real world," Yugi said, gazing around the room. It was filled with pods similar to the ones Yugi and Kaiba were currently sitting in, but they were all empty. The rest of the gang had already escaped from the virtual world and headed back to the blimp, but Rose had been with Yugi and Kaiba when they went through the portal, and she was nowhere to be seen. Yugi became worried, thinking back to the previous events to try and figure out why she wasn't there.

_Rose and Yugi came through the portal Noah had set up for them, to find Seto duelling against his step father, Gozuboro. Luckily, It appeared that the younger Kaiba had won. _

_"That's what happens when you challenge someone who's superior to you in every way," Kaiba said with his arms crossed._

_"I'll show you who's superior!" Gozuboro said, "By taking over your body Seto!" Without warning, Gozuboro's figure turned into a hideous monster, and he lunged over the duelling platform towards Kaiba._

_"Wait! What about our agreement?" Kaiba said frantically._

_"Sorry but the agreements off!" Gozuboro laughed. Yugi wasted no time as he opened the controls to the duelling platforms, and manually moved Kaiba's away fro Gozuboro._

_"Huh?" Kaiba looked around to see who was controlling it, "It's Yugi and Rose!" _

_"Seto, Jump!" Rose called out to him. Kaiba jumped off only just managing to get out of Gozuboro's path as he destroyed the platform. _

_"Hurry, we have to get out of here!" Yugi said and the three of them made a run for it. _

_"This place is going to shut down any second," Rose said. "How do we get out in time?" They ran out onto the roof, stopping at the edge._

_"What now?" Kaiba asked._

_"We jump," Rose said confidently, stepping back to make a run up._

_"Forget it," Kaiba retorted, "Are you out of your mind?"_

_"No Kaiba, look!" Yugi pointed down and they saw the portal that Noah had opened up. _

_Rose was the first to run up and jump off of the roof, as Gozuboro loomed up behind them. Yugi and Kaiba soon followed, and they plummeted towards the ground, before getting swallowed up by the portal._

_Rose was with us when we jumped, _Yugi thought, _So where is she?_

Kaiba looked next to him, and a shocked expression took over his features, "Mokuba's still in there!" He stood up, alarmed at the sight of his little brother still inside his pod.

Yugi walked around the room, looking at all the empty pods, "Rose isn't here," he said, sounding slightly worried.

Kaiba wasn't listening, as Mokuba's eyes had just opened. "Mokuba! Are you alright?" he asked.

"Never been better," Mokuba said in his usual chirpy voice, jumping out out the pod, "But Noah's still inside."

"And I have no idea whether Rose made it out or not..." Yugi said, still looking around. Kaiba wasn't quite sure what to think of the new addition to their group. She fitted in with the 'nerd patrol' perfectly, but something about her was different. It bugged him, but he felt like he was supposed to know her, but he was sure he'd never seen her in his life. The only thing about her that stood out to him was the fact that she was the only person-apart from Mokuba-that referred to him as Seto.

"Well she's not here," Kaiba said, "so let's get moving because this place is gonna blow." Him and Mokuba soon started running towards the exit and Yugi stayed and looked at the other pods for a second, before running to catch up. They were heading down a hallway with lots of rooms either side, and one of them caught Yugi's eye. He stopped, curiously looking inside as Kaiba and Mokuba ran ahead, unaware that he had stopped. Yugi noticed that this room-like the other one-was filled with pods similar to those they had woken up in. He looked around the room, and over in the far corner in the last pod was another person.

A girl.

"Rose!" Yugi called out in excitement, running over to her. It opened up and Rose slowly opened her eyes.

"...Yugi? Is that you?" She said, blinking as the light blinded her eyes.

"Yep!" Yugi said cheerfully, "You made it!"

"I did?" she said with a smile, "I'm back in the real world?"

"You sure are," he grinned. Yugi held a hand out to her, and she grabbed it as he helped her out of the pod. Hearing that there wasn't much time left, they back into the corridor and then outside towards the blimp that was already taking off.

"It's leaving without us!" Rose said as they ran to catch up with it.

"No it's not," Yugi said, running faster. "Come on!"

"Hurry up guys!" Duke called out to them from the steps.

"You can make it!" Tea said from behind him. Rose and Yugi ran as fast as they could and just managed to catch up to the blimp. Joey and Duke were standing on the steps with their arms out.

"Grab my hand!" Duke called out to Rose. Her and Yugi had just managed to grab onto Duke and Joey when the blimp took off up into the sky. The boys pulled them up and they all climbed inside the blimp as it tried to get away from the explosion of Noah's base. The entire ship was shaking from the force of the explosion, and everyone quickly grabbed onto something so they didn't fall over. As usual, Duke and Tristan were both trying to get Serenity to hold their hands. Kaiba took control however, and forced the ship into it's fastest speed, only just making it away from the explosion in time. Everyone relaxed, and walked over to the side of the blimp, looking down at the rubble sinking into the ocean.

"Noah may have been a spoilt brat when we knew him," Joey said as they looked down at what was left, "But he turned out to be alright."

"Do you think his mind was deleted when the computer was destroyed?" Tea asked.

"Knowing him, he saved his mind on a backup file," Yugi said.

"Hey," Rose grabbed the groups attention, "You guys don't mind if I stay with you for the time being, do you?"

"Of course not, Rose," Yugi said. "Besides, getting home wouldn't be an easy task for you."

"Yeah," Tea agreed, "It'd be nice having another girl around for a change," she smiled.

"You got my approval!" Joey said with a grin.

"Oh great," Kaiba groaned, "now I have another member of the nerd patrol to deal with," he said.

Rose had an inkling that he wasn't as much of an asshole as it seemed. "I'll be quiet as a mouse," she said, grinning at him.

Kaiba grunted, turning to the rest of the group, "Alright, that little detour was a complete waste of my time and effort, so let's move on and pretend that nonsense never happened. It's time for us to continue the Battle City finals!" And with that, the blimp continued to head towards Kaiba corp island.

...

"So before you guys were trapped in that virtual world by Noah," Rose said to Yugi as they sat in his room on the blimp, "you were in the middle of a duel monsters tournament?"

"Yep," Yugi said, "now we're on our way to the destination of the finals," he momentarily looked out the window where the shape of an island was forming ahead of them.

"Who else made the finals?" Rose asked curiously.

"Well there's Kaiba obviously, and also Joey and Marik," Yugi listed them off.

"Marik?" Rose hadn't heard of him, "Who's that?"

_"Why don't you let me take it from here Yugi?" _Yami said.

"Alright, you'd be better at explaining than I am," Yugi agreed, and they swapped.

Rose could tell by the look on Yami's face that this man was bad news. "Marik is a man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants," Yami said. "His greed, jealousy and hatred created a great evil inside him, and now that evil has taken over and is targeting our friends in order to weaken us."

"But why? What does he want?" Rose asked.

"The millennium puzzle. And he wants my ancient power." Rose questioned him about this ancient power and Yami explained how he was a Pharaoh in ancient Egypt 5000 years ago. "I've been brought back to defeat the same evil that threatened to destroy the world all those years ago," he said.

"Wow," Rose said, "But you don't remember anything from when you were Pharaoh?"

"Not a single memory," Yami shook his head.

"That must suck," Rose said, "and the evil inside Marik is that same ancient evil that you defeated all those years ago?"

"Now that I'm not sure of, but I must warn you to be very careful, Marik is very powerful and the people who have been unfortunate enough to cross his path already have paid the price," his expression was grim.

"Like that girl that Joey was talking about?" Rose asked.

"Mai. Yes, she was involved in a shadow game with Marik, and upon losing was sent to the shadow realm."

Rose couldn't believe how dangerous a single duel monsters tournament could be. She'd been in a few of her own and had never come across things such as this. "Have all the duels been like that?"

"Not all, especially when the tournament began, I however have had a few encounters with Marik's rare hunters and even _they_ paid the price when losing."

"Wow," Rose said, "I wish I could have been there to see all your duels."

"There are still more to come," he said. Suddenly the puzzle started glowing.

"What does that mean?" Rose asked.

"I...I think the millennium puzzle wants to show you something..." Yami said, before Rose's vision went black.

Visions came flashing before her eyes, scene after scene.

Yugi duelling against Marik's first rare hunter and defeating him and his Exodia.

Two Dark Magicians facing off in a duel where neither player could escape until the other was sent to the shadow realm.

Yugi facing off against Slypher the Sky Dragon, and defeating it.

Kaiba refusing to work as team with Yugi to defeat Lumis and Umbra.

Yugi and Joey forced to duel against each other or they would both be dragged to the bottom of the ocean.

The evil spirit of Bakura's ring duelling against Yugi with his Dark Sanctuary.

Mai duelling against Marik and losing the memory of her friends one by one. Rose felt as if she was watching on with all of Yugi's friends as Joey ran up to protect her from Ra's attack. Then she watched as Yami ran up and blocked the attack from Mai and Joey. As soon as Ra's blast hit Yami however, Rose was hit with a crippling pain and she fell to her knees. The visions receded and she was left crouching back in Yugi's room on the blimp, her hands clasped on her chest where her tattoo was.

"Rose!" Yami said, alarmed as he kneeling beside her, "Rose, are you alright?"

Rose could feel the pain receding, and she took a deep breath, "The last thing the puzzle showed me-Mai's duel. When you ran up and blocked the attack. It...it felt like I had been hit by Ra's blast..."

"How strange..." Yami said. "Here," he helped her up, "Sit down." She sat down in the chair and relaxed again.

"I'm sorry, I wouldn't have let the puzzle do that if I knew it was going to hurt you," he said apologetically.

"No it's alright, I'm glad I saw that, it helps me understand what's happened," Rose said with an encouraging smile. It certainly was quite amazing to be able to see all the duels that he had participated in since the tournament began.

Yami hesitated, "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine now," she smiled, sitting up straight again. It was true, Rose felt just like she had before the puzzle had shown her those visions, the pain she had felt only moments ago was no completely gone. Then there was a knock on the door. Yami opened itto see Tea, Duke and Trsitan.

"It's almost that time dude," Tristan said, "So grab your duelling deck and let's go." Yami turned and looked at Rose.

She nodded, "Go kick Marik's butt."


	7. Chapter 7 - Last Man Standing

**Chapter 7 - Last Man Standing**

They were lead to Kaiba's duel tower where the preliminary duel would be held. All four remaining duellists were in a four way duel to determine who they were going to face in the semi-final round. After Yugi saved Joey from an attack from Kaiba, Joey asked Yugi to stop helping him so that he could prove he can do this on his own, because he wanted to face Marik. So with Yugi's help, Joey and Marik were the first to lose the duel and thus would be the first duel of the semi finals.

...

Everyone watched as Joey's toughest duel unfolded. Facing Marik was not only hard for Joey because of his skill, there was an evil twist added to Marik's shadow game. Every monster that was destroyed or drained of its power would drain Joey's strength, and Marik's plan was that eventually Joey would not have the strength to continue the duel. Joey had been duelling remarkably, using great duelling strategies, but his energy was disintegrating. His determination however, was what kept him going. It was when Marik summoned his egyptian God card The Winged Dragon of Ra, however, that Joey questioned whether he could still win the duel.

"The time has come," Marik said, a wicked grin on his face, "Winged Dragon of Ra, destroy his monster and drain his soul!" The gang watched on helplessly as the egyptian god monster rained down it's attack on Joey.

"Fight it Joey!" Yami called out, hoping that Joey would be able to withstand the attack.

"We've got to help him!" Tea said frantically.

_"We can't!" _Yugi said_, "Thanks to Marik's shadow game, Ra's attack is draining Joey's inner strength!" _

"Come on Joey," Rose said, her hands clamped tightly into fists. "You can beat it."

Ra finished its attack and Joey was surrounded by smoke. Everyone leaned forward anxiously waiting to see what happened to Joey. The smoke cleared and they could see his figure...

and he was still standing.

"It can't be!" Marik said, outraged, "No one can withstand the devastating fury of an egyptian god monster!"

"No way!" Duke said, his eyes wide.

"Joey!" Tristan called out to his friend.

"He's standing!" Yami said.

"But for how long?" Tea asked, worry clear in her voice.

Joey looked up at Marik, "No!" Marik said, "You can't! You should be wiped out by now!"

"Time to...Put an end...to Marik's evil!" Joey said, trying to draw a card form his deck.

Marik stepped back in shock, sweat dripping off his forehead, he had not thought this would happen, "If he succeeds in attacking my life points, I'll lose the duel _and _my egyptian god card!"

"Make your move Joey!" Yami called out.

"Yeah kick Marik's butt!" Rose said, "Attack him!"

Joey summoned his Iron Knight with his last ounce of strength, but before he could call his attack, he no longer had the strength to stand, and he fell to the ground.

"Joey!" Yami tried calling out to him.

"Get up man!" Tristan said, but Joey didn't move.

"Someone get a doctor!" Duke said.  
"Kaiba, stop this duel!" Yami yelled at him, "Forget your rules! Joey needs help!" Kaiba didn't respond.

"Can't you forget about your stupid tournament for one second?" Rose said to him.

"Joey has 5 seconds to rise," Roland announced. He waited, but nothing happened, "The duel is now over!"

"Forget the duel!" Mokuba said, running onto the arena, "can't you see Joey's in trouble?"

The gang ran over to their friend.

"Are you alright buddy?" Tristan asked. Joey did not respond.

"My brother!" Serenity called out as she ran over. They were all kneeling down around him, but Yami and Rose stood back.

"Poor Joey..." Rose said, looking on. Yami hadn't said a word, and neither had Yugi. Rose was worried, she'd think he'd be down there right next to him, Yugi was his best friend after all. Maybe he was just in shock. Everyone was calling out to Joey trying to get him to wake up, but nothing was happening.

_"You've got to fight it, Joey..." _Yugi said_. _Rose looked over at Yugi for the first time since they ran over, and saw Yami and Yugi's expressions. It almost broke her heart. Yami was standing there frozen, his eyes wide with concern and his jaw locked tightly. Yugi's spirit stood beside him, tears in his eyes.

_"Come on Joey!" _Yugi said. He fell to his knees, _"I won't lose him to the shadow realm!" _Rose watched on helplessly, not sure what to do. _"It's not fair!" _

"Yugi..." Rose said. He didn't reply, neither of them said anything.

"Now that your friend is out of the picture I'm one duel away from world domination Pharaoh!" Marik laughed.

Yami spoke for the first time since Joey fell, "Enough!" He bellowed at Marik, "When will all this madness come to an end?"

Marik laughed again, "When the infinite power of the Pharaoh belongs to me!" Kaiba then interrupted Marik with his usual 'I'm going to win' speech. They brought a stretcher over for Joey and Rose was following as they carried them out, but then she noticed that Yami hadn't moved from where he was standing.

"Pharaoh?" She stopped, "are you alright?"

Kaiba interrupted her, "Yugi! I've been waiting for this moment, when we duel next victory will be mine!"

Yami didn't turn around, "Right now Joey needs me. Once I know he's alright, I'll deal with you, Kaiba." He then walked up to Rose and they both followed the others silently.


	8. Chapter 8 - The Gods Collide

**Chapter 8 - The Gods Collide**

The doctor examining Joey in the infirmary was almost lost for words, "It's so strange, Joey's brain activity is quite high, however he's not conscious at all. To be honest, I've never seen anything like this before." Mokuba then came in and said that they wouldn't be able to move Joey to a real hospital because the engines were down, so he was going to radio headquarters and get them to send a helicopter.

"Thank you Mokuba," Yami said. He then turned back to Joey.

_"It's my fault this happened to Joey," _Yugi said. Rose looked over and saw Yugi's spirit walk over to the bed. _"I should have faced Marik!" _He fell to his knees beside Joey's bed, clenching his fists.

"No, Yugi," Yami said to him. They walked outside, and Rose watched from the door.

_"I knew that duel was too dangerous, and I should have stopped it! Now it's too late...Marik is pure evil! First he got Mai, then Bakura, now this! It's not fair! Maybe we should stop fighting, it just seems to make things worse...I can't take it anymore!" _

"Wait, Yugi," Yami said, taking his duel disk off, "We've come too far. I know this is hard for you Yugi, Marik is the toughest foe we've ever faced. But if we walk away now, then he wins."

_"True," _Yugi said,_ "Joey never gave up and neither can we, we have to finish what we started, no matter what!" _Yugi merged back with Yami, a determined expression clear on his face. Rose knew that this new determination would come through for him in his duel with Kaiba. She turned around and went back to sit next to Joey.

_"Attention duellists,"_Roland said over the loud speaker,_ "Please report to the top of the duel tower for the next duel of the semi finals!" _

Yami walked back into the room, "How is he?"

"He's pretty much the same, but knowing Joey, he's doing whatever it takes to wake up," Tristan said.

"Then he'll need this," Yami picked up Joey's duel Disk and put it on his arm.

"Good point," Tristan said.

"For what?" Serenity asked, not quite catching on.

"For his toughest fight yet. Look after him," Yami turned to walk back out, "I shall return from this duel as soon as I can."

"Wait!" Tea called out, running after him. Rose sat next to Joey, looking down as his still figure.

_I wonder what's going on in his head, _Rose thought. After all, the doctor had said his brain activity was quite high. Maybe he was fighting off the shadows in his dreams. _I know you can win, Joey. _She then heard Tea raise her voice out in the corridor. Curious, Rose stood up and walked to the door. Tristan and Duke were standing behind Tea, and a few metres in front of her, Yami stood with his back facing them.

"No buts Tea," Yami said, "the reason I joined the battle city tournament, was to fulfil Ishizu's prophecy and stop this great evil from endangering man kind. And when Joey found out he vowed to help me, no matter how tough the fight. And that's why I must press on, otherwise not only would I be giving up on Joey, I'd be giving up on the entire world, so you stay here and I'll deal with Kaiba," he finally turned to see the small group of people standing behind him.

"Crush him!" Tristan said, giving him an encouraging grin.

"I will," Yami said, nodding.

"We're right here," Duke said.

"Good," Yami said, and he started to walk towards the entrance to the blimp.

"Wait up!" Rose said, "You need at least one person to cheer you on up there."

"Alright," Yami said, "Let's go."

Once they reached the top of Kaiba's duel tower, they were not surprised to see Kaiba standing there with his arms crossed, and his usual gloating smirk.

"Well, well," he said, "Yugi, you decided to show up after all."

Yami walked over to his place on the duelling platform, "Of course. To miss this duel is to deny my destiny."

"Spare me the drama," Kaiba said, and he nodded to Roland.

"The second duel of the semi-finals will now begin!" Roland announced, and the duelling platform was raised.

Rose stood to the side, "Kick his ass Yug!"

"So, where's the rest of the nerd heard?" Kaiba said, "Are they too busy trying to wake Wheeler up from his nap to come cheer you on?" he laughed. Although Rose was sure that Kaiba wasn't that much of a dick, he certainly had his moments.

Yami became angry at Kaiba for his remark considering how much danger Joey was now in. This of course didn't phase Kaiba as he always thought Joey was a second rate duellist and didn't belong in his tournament anyway. The duel began and although neither Yugi or Kaiba were able to affect damage on each other's life points, it was still a very close duel, as both players put forward their best strategies. Kaiba seemed to have the perfect plan to bring out his Egyptian God card, however Yugi was able to use Kaiba's tactics against him to bring out his own Egyptian god. Soon both Obelisk the Tormentor and Slypher and Sky Dragon were face to face on the field.

"Yugi!" Kaiba announced, "The Egyptian gods are about to clash! But only one will remain standing. Now it's time to find out which one!" Both Yugi and Kaiba made endless attempts at destroying each other's God monsters, but each time the other would out smart them. It seemed like neither Egyptian God could be destroyed. Then finally, Kaiba had declared an attack on Yugi's Slypher while it had 1000 attack points, but Yugi activated card of sanctity which allowed him to draw 6 cards, then Kaiba activated his final trap card, which made Obelisk and Slypher's attack points equal, and it was too late to call off the attack. The two god monsters clashed and an incredible white light blinded the arena.

"The power of our Egyptian god monsters is equal," Yami said. "But neither one will give up this fight!"

"You're right!" Kaiba said, "It must be a holographic malfunction!" Rose rolled her eyes, of course Kaiba would not think anything else was possible. She watched on in fascination before the light became too bright and Rose shielded her eyes. Once the light had subsided, the god monsters were gone, and both Yami and Kaiba were on their knees. They seemed to have seen a vision from the past, but no matter what Yami said to him, Kaiba continued to deny that he had any connection to it. They continued the duel without their god cards. Kaiba had a fool proof plan on how he was going to win. He played a card that forced both players to discard their entire deck bar 3 cards. This meant that the duel would come to an end within a few turns. Kaiba picked his three cards with ease, while Yami tried to figure out what Kaiba's strategy was so he could stop it. Yami picked his three cards and the final play of the duel began. Kaiba used monster reborn to bring back one of his blue eyes white dragons so that he had three on the field. He then fused them together to create The Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. Yami started his turn by activating his double spell magic card. It duplicated all the magic cards Kaiba used in his turn including monster reborn and polymerisation. So using those two cards, he brought Buster Blader back from the graveyard and fused it together with his Dark Magician to create Dark Paladin. He then placed one card face down, thus ending his turn. Kaiba attacked Yami's Paladin with his Ultimate dragon, and Yami activated Magic Formula, giving his Paladin an additional 500 points. Kaiba however used his Absorb spell trap card to take the points from Magic Formula and add it to his dragon, making it even stronger. Kaiba's dragon was about to destroy the rest of Yami's life points, when he activated de-fusion, stopping Kaiba's attack. Now that there were three blue eyes white dragons instead of one, Yami's dark paladin gained an extra power boost, making it the strongest monster in play. He then activated Defusion Wave Motion, making his paladin capable of attacking all three blue eyes white dragons at once, taking the rest of Kaiba's life points and winning him the duel.

"No! I will not let you defeat me again!" Kaiba yelled with rage.

"This duel is over kaiba," Yami said, as Kaiba's blue eyes were destroyed.

"But I had the perfect strategy!" Kaiba seemed to not believe what had just happened.

"Yes! Great work!" Rose called out.

"Way to go bud!" Joey said.

"Huh?" Rose turned around and saw the rest of the gang there, "Joey! You're alright!"

"Joey?" Yami said, turning around. "Joey!" The gang ran over.

"That's right, I'm back!" Joey said.

"I see, but how?" Yami asked.

"It was easy, I'd never let a freak show like Marik get the best of me. Besides, I gave you my word that I would help you beat him, and here I am," he grinned.

"Thanks Joey," Yami smiled.

_"Awesome! The gang's together again!" _Yugi said, smiling.

Yami then turned back around, "That was the most challenging duel I've ever fought, Kaiba."

"Just save it," Kaiba grunted.

"It's true," Yami said, "You played an excellent duel."

"I don't need the pep talk Yugi!" Kaiba yelled stubbornly.

Yami didn't look very happy with Kaiba's comment, "It's quite obvious that you haven't learned anything from this duel, and I'd say that's a shame."

"I've heard enough out of you!" Kaiba retorted.

"You were doomed from the start, Kaiba. Fuelled by your anger, your hate, your jealousy and your rage. I however have faith in destiny and faith in my friends, that's how I won."

"Friendship is for fools!" Kaiba spat, "Didn't I tell you I duel alone? Depending on others is for the weak, Yugi. My future is in my own two hands, so keep your friendships to yourself, I'm not interested in having any pals to slow me down."

"How sad," Yami shook his head.

"The time has come for me to accept my defeat like a man," Kaiba finally said, "Since there's no one else I rely on, there's no one else that I can blame." After one final look at his god card, kaiba handed Obelisk over to Yugi. Then with his usual egotistical grunt, he turned to leave.


	9. Chapter 9 - Marik's Mind Games

**Chapter 9 - Marik's Mind Games**

"Hold on Kaiba!" Joey called out, running after him. "Why don't you duel me? We'll see who gets the third place crown."

Kaiba wasn't interested, and kept walking. Joey became aggravated and stepped in front of him.

"I asked you a question!"

"Out of my way, Wheeler," was all Kaiba said. Joey wasn't going to take no for an answer, and seems he knew how to push Seto's buttons, he was able to get him to agree to duel.

They found a space just outside the duel tower to commence their battle for third place.

"Do you think Joey has a better chance at defeating Seto now after your duel with him?" Rose asked Yami.

"Kaiba may not be at the top of his game right now, but I'd say Joey would still be able to beat him even if he was. Joey has come a long way to be here, and his skills have improved immensely. Even Marik quivered while facing Joey's best strategies," Yami said.

"Hey, where did Tea go?" Duke asked, looking behind him where she had been standing only moments ago. Everyone looked around and noticed that she was gone.

"Don't worry," Tristan said lightly, "she probably just went to the bathroom." The duel continued as Joey put forward great strategies, yet Kaiba still came out on top. Suddenly the Millennium puzzle started glowing.

_"What's the deal with the puzzle?" _Yugi asked.

"It's glowing," Rose said, "What does that mean?" Yami had a strange feeling that something was wrong, and that Tea was in the middle of it.

"I'll be right back Joey!" Yami said, before turning and heading towards the duel tower.

"Wait for me!" Rose called out, running after him. "Where are you going?"

"I don't know," Yami admitted, slowing down. "But I have a feeling she's this way."

Rose nodded, "I bet she's at the top of the tower," she said, looking up at the duel tower.

"How do you know?" Yami asked as they headed towards it.

"Gut feeling," she said. They both headed up to the top of the tower, hoping Tea was okay. They reached the top and saw Marik threatening Ishizu with his millennium rod.

"Hold on!" Yami said, emerging from the stairs.

"Look at this," Marik said, "I'm quite popular today. Welcome Pharaoh, our battle will begin sooner than I thought." Rose watched as both their Millenium items began glowing and the symbol was shown on their foreheads. It was clear some sort of battle between their millennium items was taking place. The sky grew dark, heavy clouds rolled in, and Rose could feel the two powerful forces as they threatened to overwhelm each other.

Marik was caught surprised, _He is much too powerful for me to take on right now, _he thought, angry that he couldn't take down the Pharaoh in that instant. _I need to weaken him somehow. _

"On second thought, I don't want to end this just yet. That would be too easy Pharaoh," he laughed, "Besides, I have something else in mind," he looked to Rose with an evil grin. _I can weaken the Pharaoh by taking what he cares about most, his friends..._

"What do you want, creep?" She asked.

He simply laughed at her, before turning back to Yami, "When we next meet Pharaoh, your power will be mine!" He left the three of them staring after him as he walked away with an evil laugh.

Rose looked around, and saw Tea lying on the ground. "What was Tea doing up here?" They all walked over to her while Ishizu explained how Marik's good side lived within Tea's mind, and that he had tried to confront his dark side by controlling Tea's body. Yami promised Ishizu that he would defeat Marik in their duel.

"Hey, look," Rose said, "Tea's waking up!"

"Are you alright?" Yami asked her after she had opened her eyes.

"Yeah, but I don't know how I got up here..." Tea said, blinking at her surroundings with a confused expression.

_"Maybe we should tell Tea that Marik took over her mind to confront his evil side," _Yugi said. _"...On second thought, maybe not." _

Rose laughed.

"What's so funny?" Tea asked.

"Oh, nothing," she said, "Let's get back to Joey's duel before it's over."

"Good idea," Yami said.

...

The final duel between Yugi and Marik would take place the following day, so Roland encouraged the duellists to get a good rest when he announced this on the blimp's speakers that night.

"Don't worry Yugi, you'll crush him," Rose said as they sat in her room.

"I sure hope so," Yugi said, eyeing the deck of cards in his belt, "I don't want to think of what will happen if we lose."

_"But we won't," _Yami said.

"Exactly," Rose agreed, "When you two work together, there's no one you can't beat. And when you do defeat Marik, everyone who was sent to the shadow realm will be set free."

"Mai and Bakura..." Yugi then smiled, "With all of you guys here, there's no way I'm going to lose!" he said.

"Good," Rose said with a smile, "Now go get some sleep, you have a big day tomorrow."

"Alright," Yugi said, getting up. "Goodnight Rose, and thanks."

"No worries," Rose said. "Sleep well." Yugi walked out into the corridor and suddenly felt a cold chill down his spine.

_"Marik has grown so much in power I can almost sense when he is near," _Yami said as they headed back to their room.

"I just hope that when we defeat him all the damage he has caused will be reversed," Yugi walked into his room and collapsed on the bed.

_"We'll worry about that tomorrow. For now, get some rest."_

"Alright," Yugi kicked off his shoes, took off his jacket, and placed his millennium puzzle on the bedside table, before pulling the covers over him and closing his eyes.

...

Half way through the night, Yugi was suddenly woken by Yami.

"What's the matter?" Yugi asked him sleepily.

_"Something's not right," _Yami said, _"I can feel it."_

Yugi sat up, wiping his eyes, "What do you mean?"

_"I mean I can sense that something bad is about to happen."_ Yami said. Yugi got out of bed and instinctively grabbed the millennium puzzle before padding towards the door. He poked his head into the corridor. It was empty and eerily quiet for a moment, before they heard a noise. Yugi turned his head the other way to see Rose emerging from her room.

"It's Rose," he said, "What's she doing up at this time of night?" Rose was walking down the corridor in the opposite direction, towards the entrance to the blimp.

_"I have a bad feeling about this," _Yami said. Yugi quickly pulled his shoes on and followed Rose out of the blimp.

"Rose!" He called out as she walked towards the duel tower, "Rose, where are you going?" She did not reply, she just kept walking. "Wait up!" Yugi's short legs made it hard for him to catch up to her, she seemed to be walking much faster than usual as well, as if she was walking with purpose. He stopped for a moment, confused. "Is she sleep walking?"

_"It's possible," _Yami said, _"But I fear it may be more than that. Why don't you let me take over for now?"_

"Alright," Yugi said, and they swapped. Yami was able to keep up with Rose's swift pace, but he hung back slightly, unsure of what this was about. They reached the top of the duel tower, and Rose walked over to the other side, stopping at the edge.

"Rose," Yami called out, "What are you doing up here?"

That's when she turned around.


	10. Chapter 10 - Secrets In The Ink

**Chapter 10 - Secrets In The Ink**

Yami gasped when he saw Rose. Her eyes were blank and empty, which could only mean one thing.

"Marik!" Yami yelled out with rage, "I demand that you set her free! She has nothing to do with this!" He looked around, trying to spot Marik lurking in the shadows.

_"I'm afraid I can't do that," _Rose replied, but it didn't sound like her at all. It was a twisted version of her voice mixed with Marik's, as he spoke through her. She was standing perfectly still, her hands at her sides and her blank eyes staring numbly at Yami.

"Rose," he said to her, "Marik is controlling you, you must break his mind spell!" He urged.

_"She is much too weak Pharaoh,"_Rose laughed, _"Really, you should pick those you care about more wisely."_

"Rose please listen to me," Yami pleaded, stepping forward, "You have to fight back, I know you are strong enough to overpower his shadow magic!"

_"Your efforts are futile Pharaoh!" _Rose laughed, _"Now hand over your millennium puzzle and my Egyptian god card!"_

_I should have known he'd try something like this, _Yami thought. "That card is not yours, and neither is my puzzle!" He said with finality.

_"Very well,"_ Rose walked up onto the ledge, only centimetres from the deadly drop to the rubble below. Yami's breath caught in his throat. _"I have no problem with letting your friend step off of this ledge."_

_"He can't do that!" _Yugi said, panicking, _"We have to stop him!" _

"You wouldn't!" Yami said, starting to move toward her.

_"Hold it right there!" _Rose said, holding a hand up. She smirked, shaking her index finger at him, _"We don't want anything happening to Rose now, do we?"_

Yami wiped the sweat off of his forehead. He could sense Yugi's fear, know that his heart was pounding in his chest. But he had to be strong and confident for both of them, innocent lives were at stake and he couldn't afford to make a mistake.

_"What do we do?" _Yugi asked hysterically.

_"Now hand over your puzzle and my god card!" _Rose demanded for the last time.

"I'll never give you my puzzle!" Yami said, instinctively grabbing the chain that it hung on around his neck.

_"We have no choice!" _Yugi said. Yami knew he was right, he was running out of time. He'd never let anyone hurt his friends, and he couldn't let anything happen to Rose.

_"Too bad,"_Rose said, _"She's such a pretty face..."_Rose went to step off of the ledge.

"No!" Yami screamed, "Rose, stop!" fear had overcome him, and he lurched forward, trying to reach Rose as she went to step off of the ledge...

and stopped. Yami stopped in front of her with wide eyes, confused, before looking down in amazement, seeing that his puzzle was glowing. He then looked back up to Rose; all he could see was the back of her head, she was standing still on the ledge.

Yami took a step forward, "...Rose?"

"Marik!" Rose's voice dripped with malice as she turned around, glaring into the shadows. Yami and Yugi let out gasps of relief. "You selfish coward!" She bellowed. That's when they saw a figure standing in the shadows.

"What?!" Marik emerged from the shadows, clearly enraged, "How can this be? You are my mind slave! Do as I command you!"

"I will _not_ be controlled!" Rose yelled, outraged.

_"Hey, look!" _Yugi said, _"on her forehead, It's the millennium symbol!"_

Yami looked to Rose's forehead, and sure enough the millennium symbol was glowing brightly as if it belonged there, was somehow a part of her. He gasped in surprise, "It is, But how?"

_"And her tattoo is glowing!"_ Yami had figured by now that it must have been more than just a tattoo, from the few odd occurrences that had happened lately, he knew it held some sort of powerful secret.

Marik seemed to notice this as well, and he stepped back, shock clear on his face, "that glow on your chest! It looks like...But it can't be...who are you?!" _Could this girl truly be the one from those stories? _Marik thought with shocking realisation. _I thought they were just tales! But how else would you explain this?!_

"I may not know much about who I am," Rose said, "but I do know that I can hold off your pathetic attempt at blackmail," she spat.

"Looks like your mind tricks are getting old," Yami said to Marik, who scowled.

"I've had enough of this!" Marik yelled with rage, using the power of his millennium rod to force Rose backwards. She stumbled back and her eyes widened when she felt there was no ground below her foot. With a blood curdling scream, she fell off of the ledge.

"Rose!" Yami ran over to the edge, terrified for her safety as she screamed for help. She had managed to grab onto a lower ledge, and when Yami reached the edge of the tower, he saw her hanging on for dear life just below. Marik stepped back, laughing maniacally at the scene before him.

"Rose! Grab my hand!" Yami said, reaching down to her.

"I can't!" She said, "I can't hold on!" Her grip was slipping fast.

"Yes you can!" Yami said to her, "I know you can! Please trust me!" Rose reached up to grab his hand, and just as he grabbed hold of her, her other hand slipped and she was left hanging onto his arm as he tried to pull her back up. Yami managed to pull her back up and over the railing, and she fell into his arms in relief, her knees buckling under her.

"Thank you," she said, breathing heavily.

"It's okay, you're safe now," he reassured her, letting her lean on him while she regained her feet.

"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt your moment," Marik said, "But I have some unfinished business to attend to!" He lifted his millennium rod and forced Yami back into the far wall. He was unable to move.

"Pharaoh!" Rose started running towards him.

"Rose! Behind you!" He called out to her. She turned around just as Marik swung his millennium rod at her. Rose yelped and ducked out of the way, but Marik just held up his rod and it forced her backwards, but unlike Yami, there was no wall for her to hit. Instead, she plummeted down the stairs.

"Rose!" Yami called out.

"Next time we meet your power will be mine, Pharaoh!" Marik taunted, before going down the stairs to deal with Rose. He found her curled up in a ball at the bottom of the stairs, and he stopped in front of her.

"What do you want from me?" She demanded, slowly getting to her feet with a wince.

"Well my dear," he smirked, "with you in the shadow realm the Pharaoh will be weak enough for me to destroy and claim his ancient power," he laughed.

"You'll have to defeat me in a duel before you can try and send _me _to the shadow realm, you creep," Rose spat.

"Very well," Marik replied, "But you're only prolonging the inevitable." They found a suitable area to duel, on a secluded area of the island, "This should make sure we have no unexpected interruptions," Marik said with a smirk.

"Just shut up and duel," Rose said, glaring at him as she pulled out her deck.

"Prepare to be sent to the shadows," Marik smirked, and the duel began.


	11. Chapter 11 - Fighting Off The Shadows

**Chapter 11 - Fighting Off The Shadows**

Yami wasn't free of Marik's powers until quite a few minutes after he had left. When the invisible force holding him to the wall disappeared he fell to his knees.

"I can't let Marik hurt Rose," he said, balling his hands into fists. He stood up and ran after them down the stairs, calling out for Rose. There was no answer though, it was completely silent.

...

Although Rose was a tough and talented duellist, Marik's shadow game had a sick twist to it. After being inside her mind, he knew all of her worst fears, and used them to his advantage. She couldn't concentrate, surrounded by nothing but a dark cloud and all her nightmares whispering in her ears, and nobody around to encourage her. So despite her skills, Marik's shadow mind games overwhelmed Rose, costing her the duel.

"Well," Marik laughed, looking pleased with himself, "That was easier than I thought. Any last words before I send you to the shadows?" He walked over to Rose, who was on the ground, lifting herself onto her knees with a wince.

"There's no way you're going to take the Pharaoh's power!" she spat.

"Well," Marik smirked, "I seemed to take you down easy enough, and if you are who I think you are then he shall fall straight into my hands," _What does he mean by that? _Rose thought. Marik let out a laugh before lowering his millennium rod to Rose's eye level. "Say hello to the shadows!" and that's when everything went black.

...

"Rose!" Yami called out. "Rose where are you?" he slumped against the outer wall of the duel tower, the only response was the echo of his own voice. He had been searching for hours, but there was no sign of Rose or Marik anywhere. Even the mysterious presence he felt when he was around her had vanished. He could feel his fatigue setting in; his body ached for sleep and his mind was blurred but restless.

_"We're on an island," _Yugi said, _"There's no way in or out but the blimp, so where are they?" _

"I don't know," Yami said, trying to regain his breath. "But we can't give up until we find her, safe and unharmed."

_"Who knows what Marik could be doing to her!" _Yugi became even more worried, _"We have to find her! And fast!" _

Yami nodded, before taking a deep breath and setting off at a run for another lap of the island.

...

_Rose opened her eyes, to see nothing but blackness. Confused, she sat up, to find herself sitting in her bed back on the blimp. _I must have dreamt the whole thing, _she thought to herself, relieved. _Thank god, I thought I had been sent to the shadow realm..._she turned and placed her feet on the floor._

_"I need to go for a walk to clear my head..." she stood up and walked over to the door, and stopped. Something wasn't right, she could feel it. She turned around and stared. Where she had been not a moment ago, was now filled with a blackness darker than anything she had seen before. It was beyond pitch black, darker than the night sky without stars. And no ordinary darkness, she thought, had such an evil presence like this one did. It was almost as if every creature from every nightmare she had ever had was sitting in those shadows waiting to drag her into the deepest depths of the earth. She could almost hear the shadows beckoning her towards the darkness, to join the _things _inside, to be engulfed by the evil. _

_She did the only thing any person would have done. She screamed and ran. She was halfway down the hallway when she could feel the shadows at her heels, hissing twisted words in her ears. Words of destruction, of feeding on the life force of others. It made her sick to her stomach. She reached the end of the hall and realised she had gone the wrong way, as this was now a dead end. She looked to her left, there was an empty room. She darted inside and closed the door, hoping that the shadows would not be able to follow. She ran to the other side of the room and pressed herself against the wall, willing the darkness to go away. But it wasn't enough, the shadows seeped into the room like gas, through every crack in the wall, and under the door, engulfing the room in darkness. It made its way across the floor, hissing as it went._

_"The shadows are hungry..."_ _it whispered. Rose shivered and squeezed her eyes shut, hoping it was all just a bad dream. She could feel the darkness surrounding her, shutting off the oxygen around her. She tried to breathe in, but felt like she was suffocating as if under water. The darkness started swallowing her bit by bit from her ankles upwards, and she screamed as it began to consume her._

_Suddenly there was a bright light, blinding the room. Rose could feel the shadows hesitate at her torso, before they started to recede, shrieking like a vampire exposed in sun. She knew she could finally breathe again, but it wasn't soon enough, her lungs were empty of air, her head felt like it would explode, and her knees buckled, making her fall to the ground, unconscious._

_..._

Tea was awoken by the unpleasant sound of someone banging on her door. She opened her eyes wearily, noticing it was morning.

"Tea! Tea wake up!" It was Joey, of course. Nobody could make as much noise as he could, apart from maybe Tristan when he really wanted to.

"What on earth?" she yawned, before climbing out of bed and making her way over to the door, as Joey continued to smash his fist on the other side of it.

"Alright already," she said, opening the door, "What's your problem?"

"Yugi's missing," he said, breathing heavily as if he had just been running.

"What? Yugi's gone?" Tea no longer felt sleepy, as worry for her friend set in. "We have to find him!"

"Well come on!" Joey said, and Tea grabbed her shoes, before heading out of her room.

Tea stopped, "Shouldn't we wake Rose?" she suggested. "She could probably help us."

"Nah, let her sleep," Joey said, "No need to worry her too, now let's go!" they ran out of the blimp and stared to search the island for their friend.


	12. Chapter 12 - Defeating The Darkness

**Chapter 12 - Defeating The Darkness**

Joey and Tea soon found Yugi sitting against the outer wall of the duel tower, his head drooped as if he had fallen asleep without meaning to. He looked so small and innocent you would never guess that he and the Pharaoh were fighting an evil that threatened to destroy the world five thousand years ago.

"Yugi," Tea said, kneeling next to him, "Yugi wake up, your duel is today," she nudged his shoulder, and his head flew up, his eyes wide.

"Rose!" he said, alarmed.

"Huh?" Joey said,

"Oh no, I fell asleep!" Yugi jumped up, and Joey and Tea could see the dark circles under his eyes.

"Whoa whoa, calm down buddy," Joey grabbed him by the shoulders, "What's the matter?"

"Marik took Rose, I have to find her!"

"What?" Tea said, shocked, "Marik took Rose?"

"We'll help you find her bud," Joey said. He turned to Tea, "You go search that side of the island," he pointed behind her, "And I'll go this way." he then turned back to Yugi, "You get some rest, your duel against Marik is today."

"But-"

"No buts, we'll be back soon," and with that, Joey took off on search for Rose.

Yugi slumped against the side of the tower, "I totally forgot about our duel today, I'm exhausted."

_"That was probably Marik's plan all along, to weaken us so that we would be easy to defeat today," _Yami said, _"But we can't let him prevail, not with innocent lives at stake." _Suddenly they felt something, as if someone was calling out to them, and the millennium puzzle lit up for a moment. Yugi's eyes lit up.

_"You felt that, too?" _Yami asked.

"It felt like Rose, come on!" Yugi said, and he stood up, before having to lean against the wall for a moment.

_"Let me take over again, so you can rest," _Yami said.

"Alright," Yugi agreed, and they swapped over, before Yami ran off in the direction that he knew Rose would be. They reached one of the ruins left over from the old Kaiba corp.

_"We passed here so many times," _Yugi said.

"Yes, but we never saw this before," Yami walked over to the dilapidated wall, and pushed aside a metal sheet, exposing the room that once was part of Gozuboro's island. "Rose!" Yami called out, "Rose, can you hear me?"

"Over here," they heard a weak voice from around the corner, and they walked around to find a space between the destroyed buildings hidden from the rest of the island, perfect for a duel that didn't want to be disturbed. They saw Rose, over the far side, trying to sit up.

"Rose!" Yami ran over to her, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said, rubbing her head, "I've been asleep this whole time. At least I think I was."

"I'm so sorry," he said, "if it weren't for me you wouldn't have been dragged into this mess."

"No it's okay, you warned me about Marik." Rose said. "Anyway I'm fine, there's nothing to worry about."

"What happened?" He asked.

"He was going to send me to the shadow realm, so I challenged him to a duel but...I lost. He used his shadow game to bring back all my nightmares and fears and it overwhelmed me, I had no chance. Then I thought he really was going to send me to the shadow realm, but I think I was just knocked unconscious."

Yami then noticed that her tattoo was no longer a tattoo, it had turned into a solid gold heart on her chest, as if it were a part of her. "Your tattoo," he said, his eyes wide, "It's..."

"Whoa," Rose said, looking down at it, "It's beautiful...whatever it is. How...?" she couldn't finish her sentence, she was too surprised.

"I'm not sure," Yami said. "I knew there was more to that tattoo than meets the eye, but this..." Yami said, "I'm sure Marik had every intention to send you to the shadows, but you must have been able to fight them off with that heart of yours."

Rose thought for a moment, "Well I did have quite a nightmare when I was knocked out, I was being chased by darkness that wanted to eat me, and then there was a bright light and I woke up."

Yami smiled, "You are strong, Rose. Strong enough that you could fight off the shadows that threatened to consume you."

"Well that's a relief," she said. Yami helped her up and they made their way back to the blimp, where Roland announced that the final duel would commence in an hour.

...

"I don't know if I can do this," Yugi said, looking at his shoes as he sat across from Rose in the blimp.

"Why not? You've come so far," Rose said.

"Marik is pure evil, he's already taken two of our friends and he almost did the same to you and Joey. And all of this is my fault. It's me that he wants."

_"No Yugi, it's us that he wants," _Yami said.

"If you back out now all of us would have suffered for nothing. It's your destiny to defeat this guy and I know you can do it. You've just got to believe in yourself and the heart of the cards just like you told me," Rose said.

_"Well said," _Yami agreed, _"When you and I work together there's nothing we can't do. If anyone is going to stop this madness it's us."_

Yugi sighed, "You're right, it just feels like the world's on my shoulders."

_"We'll share the weight," _Yami said, putting a hand on Yugi's shoulder, _"And soon it will be gone, along with Marik's evil." _

"I know you both can do this," Rose said. "And if the weight is too heavy for the both of you, all of your friends will be right behind you, supporting you the whole way," Rose gave them a reassuring grin.

"Yeah," Yugi said with a smile, "Let's go kick Marik's butt and save his good side!"

...

Yugi's shadow game with Marik had a new twist compared to Marik's previous duels, in this one both Yugi and Marik's souls were on the line, while Yami and Marik's evil half duelled. As each of them lost life points, their counter parts would lose a part of themselves to the shadows. Yami put up both Obelisk and Slypher against Marik, but he destroyed Slypher and created an Obelisk clone that could not be destroyed. He then brought forth The Winged Dragon of Ra-the most powerful of the God cards, and Yami fought him off as much as he could, until Odion suddenly appeared and gave Marik's good side the strength to take back his body. Yami created a plan to destroy Ra and Marik's evil side with it, leaving Marik with one life point left. When the smoke cleared, it was the good Marik standing before them, and the evil was almost completely eaten away by the shadows. Marik knew what he had to do, so he forfeited the duel and his evil side disappeared in the shadows, never to return again. Everyone cheered as the duel finished, Yugi had won the Battle City finals. Once the platform had lowered back down, Kaiba half heartedly congratulated him and Marik handed over Ra, telling Yami that he would need all three cards in order to unlock his past. This gave him hope for regaining his memories of the past.

Rose walked up to him, looking over his shoulder at the three god cards. "So those are the key to gaining your memories back?" she asked.

He nodded, "It seems so. After all this time I'll finally be able to unlock my past."

Kaiba then announced that the island would self destruct in one hour so they had to get moving. Everyone made their way back to the blimp, hoping to find their friends safely returned from the shadow realm.


	13. Chapter 13 - Souls Returned

**Chapter 13 - Souls Returned**

Joey was the first to enter Mai's room, "Serenity," he said as he walked in, "Is Mai okay now?"

Serenity hesitated, "She's not up..."

Joey's face fell, "No way! What gives?" The rest of the gang followed Joey into the room.

"I don't know," Serenity said, looking back at Mai.

"Wake up Mai," Joey said, going over to her bed, "You're supposed to be alright!" Everyone watched on in silence as Joey spoke to Mai, who was giving no response whatsoever. This was the first time that Rose had actually seen the girl that everyone was talking about, and she was very pretty. Rose could tell that this girl meant a lot to Joey. "Hear me?" Joey said, grabbing her shoulders, "Yugi beat Marik so your mind's supposed to be back from the shadow realm!" He had a look of despair on his face, "come on! I know you can do it!"

"Joey..." Tea said.

"Please Mai!" Joey pleaded, "I'd give anything in the world to have you back!"

Mai suddenly started giggling.

"Huh?" Joey said, his face going red, "What's going on?"

Mai cracked up laughing, "That expression is priceless!" she sat up, "Did I hear you say you'd give anything to have me wake up?" Joey didn't know what to say. "You were right Serenity he bought it hook, line and sinker!"

"Serenity!" Joe said, turning to his sister.

"Oh I just couldn't resist," she said, poking her tongue out. The rest of the gang were dumbfounded.

"I knew you guys were kidding all along," Tea said.

"That was not cool," Duke said, scratching his head.

"Oh come on, you know it was all in good fun!" Mai laughed. She then saw Rose standing behind the group, "I don't remember seeing you on the blimp before..." she said, confusion on her face.

Joey had managed to compose himself again, "Mai, this is Rose, we found her when we were stuck in Noah's virtual world," he said.

"Virtual world?" Mai had no idea what he was talking about.

"Oh, right...we'll explain on the way home. But for now I'm hungry, I say we take a lunch break," he grinned, and they headed towards the blimp's kitchen. Rose followed them all into the room, where there was a white haired boy sitting on the floor, surrounded by food. She assumed this must have been Bakura.

"Sorry guys," he said, "But I'm afraid the donuts are gone." Rose laughed.

"It's good to see you back Bakura," Joey said, "But what are you doing raiding the refrigerator?"

"I was gone for a long time," Bakura explained, "and there's not much to eat in the shadow realm."

"Go figure," Joey said.

Bakura then saw Rose chuckling behind Joey. "Why hello there, who might you be?" he asked. "I don't recall there being an extra person on the blimp."

"I'm Rose," she said with a smile, "I arrived while you were in the shadow realm, and almost got sent there myself."

"Oh dear," he said, "Well luckily we're safe and sound now."

"You bet!" Joey said with a grin.

...

"Well we made it home in one piece," Tristan said as they stood by the docks having just been dropped off by the Kaiba Corp blimp.

"Barely," Tea said with a sigh.

"Pharaoh," Ishizu began, "It is because of your bravery that my brother was saved from the darkness within him. Now the time has come for you to uncover the great mysteries that surround your past," Ishizu said.

"And Rose," Marik grabbed her attention, "That heart of yours is very important."

"What do you mean? What is it?" She asked.

"You must find that out for yourself," he said. Rose folded her arms, grumbling to herself.

"Goodbye my king," Ishizu said, "I know that we will meet again soon." They all nodded, and then turned and left.

"Who knew there was actually a nice guy inside that psychotic evil nut case," Joey said.

Rose laughed, "That's why you don't judge a book by it's cover Joey."

"Even if the cover has taken over the rest of the book," Duke said, they all laughed. "Alright, now it's my time to say goodbye."

"Why's that Duke?" Tristan asked.

"You know me," Duke said with his characteristic smile, "I can't stay in the one spot for too long, I've got places to go, hearts to break and dice to roll!" Tristan face-palmed. "But don't worry, I'll be back." He walked over to Serenity and took her hand, "See you round Serenity."

"Bye Duke," she said, and he waved before turning and walking off. Serenity looked down at her hand and saw a folded up piece of paper.

"Hey!" Tristan said, taking it from her, "He slipped her his phone number!" he then yelled out after Duke, "Real smooth man! Like she's ever gonna call you!"

Rose couldn't help but laugh, "are they always like this?"

"Pretty much," Tea laughed.

"Okay, my turn," Mai said. They all turned to her, as she had spoken unexpectedly.

"What's that?" Yami asked.

"You're not leaving too, are you?" Serenity asked.

"I'm a wanderer and I'm afraid the open road calls," she said, "I came here for Battle City, but now that that's over it's time for me to move on."

"Mai, don't go," Serenity said. She explained how much of an inspiration Mai had been to her, and Mai turned around and thanked her for looking after her while she was in the shadow realm.

"Yugi," Mai said, turning to him, "In the next tournament it's going to be me against you."

"You're on," Yami said. Joey stuttered for words before giving up.

"Bye guys," Mai said, "See you round," she walked off in the direction of her car.

"Joey!" Tea said, "Don't be such a dork! Do something right for a change will ya?"

"Don't be a wuss, Joey," Rose urged. Joey hesitated, before running off after Mai. Rose noticed that the person standing next to her was now shorter, and she turned to see Yugi standing there now.

"Well, I guess I better get home," Tristan said, looking at the sun setting across the ocean.

"Me too," Tea agreed, "All this Battle City stuff almost made me forget all the stuff I have to do."

Yugi looked over to Rose, who was looking quite sad, "Hey Rose, what's the matter?"

"I just realised," she said, "I don't have a home to go to, I'm not from here. And to be honest, I don't want to go all the way back to Australia. I have no friends and no purpose there...Besides, I don't even know _how_ to get back." She sighed, looking out at the horizon.

"Hey don't worry about it, you can stay with us," Yugi said.

"Really?" Rose said, surprised at his generosity.

"Of course, Grandpa will be more than happy to give you the spare room, and he'll be quite interested in that heart of yours for sure," he gave her a reassuring grin.

"Yeah we don't want you to go, Rose," Tea said.

_"Besides, we've only just gotten to know you," _Yami said, _"It would be good to see you stick around for a while longer." _

Rose smiled, "You guys are the best."

"Well there you go," Tristan said, "Now, let's go home." They all split and went their respective ways, and as Yugi and Rose headed towards the game shop, Yugi was pointing out various landmarks in Domino that they passed. It would take Rose a little while to be able to make her own way around without getting lost.

_"I'm glad you can stay," _Yami said, _"Especially since we still don't know what that heart of yours is."_

"Yeah," Yugi agreed, "And I'd like to know how you two can communicate so easily," he said.

Yami nodded, _"As odd as this may sound Rose, I believe it was destiny that your cruise ship sank, and you found your way to us." _

"Well my life has certainly gotten a lot more interesting since I met you guys," Rose laughed. "But despite almost being sent to the Shadow Realm and being trapped inside a virtual world, I prefer it like this, because I actually have friends now." Yugi smiled, and they continued their walk back to the game shop.


	14. Chapter 14 - Restless Memories

**Chapter 14 - Restless Memories**

"This is so exciting!" Yugi's Grandpa began, "I'll get on to Professor Hawkins straight away!"

Rose watched in amusement as Solomon bounded towards the computer, "Wow, you were right, Yug. He is quite interested in the heart."

"And hopefully he can help us find out just what it is and what it can do," Yugi said hopefully. "Come on, while he's doing that I'll show you the spare room." They walked up stairs and came across a plain room with a single bed and wardrobe. "Here it is," Yugi said, "I hope it's alright."

"It's perfect," Rose smiled, before jumping on the bed with a grin. Yugi chucked. Rose then stood up and walked over to the wardrobe, opening the doors. "There's certainly enough space, I just don't have anything to fill it with, all of my stuff went down with the cruise ship."

"You had all of your clothes on the cruise?" Yugi asked in disbelief.

Rose nodded, "I didn't own much clothing after coming out of the orphanage, and it was a long cruise."

"We'll get you some new clothes tomorrow then," Yugi said. "Or, more like, Tea will get you some new clothes..."

"What, you're not into shopping?" Rose said with a laugh.

"Yeah it's not really my thing," Yugi said, chuckling.

"I got through to Arthur!" Solomon called from downstairs.

"Let's see what he has to say," Yugi said, and they walked downstairs to see Professor Hawkins' face on the computer screen.

_"Hello, you must be Rose!" _Arthur said as her and Yugi came over.

"Yes, it's nice to meet you," she said, pulling up a chair next to Solomon.

_"Indeed it's intriguing to meet you,"_ he said. Arthur asked Rose a few questions and she responded to the best of her ability. _"That's quite terrible that you don't remember much," _he said,_ "However I think I may have come across something in my research some years ago that might help. Actually I'm flying over there tomorrow, how about this, meet me at the domino museum at 3pm tomorrow and we'll see if my suspicions are correct, hm?"_

"Sounds good," Yugi said, "Do you think you know what the heart can do?"

_"I have an inkling,"_ Arthur said, _"But more about that tomorrow, I have some work I need to do, nice talking to you all!"_

"Have a good flight Arthur," Solomon said, before Arthur hung up.

"So, what do you think Rose? We'll find out just what your heart can do," Yugi said.

"I'm actually quite nervous to be honest," she said, "I mean, I don't even remember how I got this, not to mention the fact that it looked like a tattoo until recently."  
"Yes, that indeed is quite strange," Solomon said, "But let's not worry about that now. Besides, I'm starving, who wants some food?"

...

Later that night, Yugi was awoken by a loud thud.

"What was that?" he asked sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

_"It sounds like some sort of disturbance coming from Rose's room," _Yami said.

"I better check to see if she's okay..." Yugi got out of bed and opened his door. Rose's room was right across from his, and he heard another thud, followed by a murmur. He quietly padded across the hall and pushed Rose's bedroom door open.

"Rose," he whispered, "Is everything alright?" There was no response. He looked across to the bed, where Rose was sprawled across the sheets, tossing and turning. She was murmuring something also, as if she were distressed. She rolled over again and hit the wall. Yugi guessed that's what had woken him.

"Can't...hold on..." Rose murmured.

"Should we wake her up? She appears to be having a nightmare," Yugi whispered.

_"That would probably be best," _Yami replied.

Yugi walked over to the bed as Rose rolled over again, still murmuring, "always...protect..." she was saying.

Yugi carefully nudged Rose's shoulder, "Rose," he said quietly, "Rose wake up." She suddenly sat up, almost knocking Yugi off of his feet, she appeared to be quite flustered. She looked around the room wildly before seeing Yugi.

"Sorry," she said, trying to slow her breathing.

"That's alright, I'm just glad you're awake," he said, rubbing his head, "You looked quite distressed, were you having a nightmare?"

"I was," Rose sighed. "The same one I always have, but I can never remember much of it after I wake up. It's driving me nuts." She racked her hands through her hair.

"What do you remember from it?" Yugi asked.

"Just that I was trying to stop something from happening, something terrible, but every time I fail. I know there's another person there too, I think I'm trying to help them with something, but then there's a big explosion and that's it."

_"How strange," _Yami said.

Rose sighed, "I wish I knew why I was having these nightmares so often," she slumped back against her pillow.

_"Perhaps it's something from you past that your subconscious still remembers," _Yami said.

"Yeah," Yugi said, "It could be your mind trying to remind you about it."

"I don't think I want to remember..." Rose said, _if it bothers me this much when I don't remember it I can't imagine what it'd be like if I did remember._

_"Well try and get some rest," _Yami said, _"And hopefully your nightmare won't come back tonight."_

"Oh, don't worry," Rose said, "I don't ever have it twice in one night. Thanks for waking me."

"No worries," Yugi said with a smile as he headed towards the door, "night Rose." Yugi closed the door behind him as Rose curled back up under her sheets. When Yugi walked back into his own room, he climbed back into his bed.

"I wonder what it is that her mind is trying to tell her," Yugi said, aimlessly gazing out the window.

_"I think she was trying to protect whoever she was with somehow," _Yami said.

"Yeah, and she was murmuring something about not being able to hold on...hold on to what though?" Yugi asked.

_"I'm not sure," _Yami said, _"But I think her past is more important than she makes it out to be."_

Yugi nodded, "Well, I guess we'll get some answers tomorrow, at least about the heart anyway." He pulled the covers over him and curled up on his pillow.

_"Indeed," _Yami said, _"But for now, get some sleep." _Yugi nodded and closed his eyes, soon falling into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.


	15. Chapter 15 - The Lost Millennium Item

**Chapter 15 - The Lost Millennium Item**

"Well, here we are," Yugi said, looking up at the big building in front of them, "The Domino Museum."

_"This is where we first heard about Battle City," _Yami said.

"And where we discovered that you're an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh," Yugi added.

_"Yes," _Yami remembered, _"When we spent the day with Tea."_

"So you only found out about that just before the Battle City tournament began?" Rose asked. Yugi nodded, and Rose chuckled as she turned and looked at Mr Moto.

"Ooh this is so exciting!" Solomon bounded up and down. "Arthur should be here any minute, unless he's running late," he said, looking at his watch.

"Late?" A familiar voice appeared from behind them. They turned around to see a well dressed Arthur walking towards them, "when am I ever late?"

"Arthur!" Solomon greeted him, "It's nice to see you again."

"The feeling is mutual my good friend," Arthur then turned to Rose. "My, that is a stunning artefact you have there," he said, indicating the heart on Rose's chest.

"So do you think you know what it could be?" Yugi asked.

Arthur nodded, "I am almost certain that my suspicions are correct. Follow me and we'll discuss this further in the museum."

They followed Arthur into the museum and through to the Egyptian exhibit. Rose gasped when she walked into the room holding the tablets, staring up at them with awe.

"Wow, those are incredible," she said. She then looked closer, "Yugi! Is that you? Is this the tablet you told me about?"

"Indeed it is," Yami said. Rose almost jumped out of her skin, having not noticed Yugi and Yami swap places.

"As you all probably already know, this is the ancient egyptian tablet dating back to around 5000 years ago. The Pharaoh carved in this tablet is the same spirit that lives inside Yugi's puzzle."

"Yes Arthur, but what about Rose's heart?" Yugi's Grandpa said impatiently.

"I'm getting to that Solomon," Arthur chuckled. "Now, you say that you had an encounter at the Battle City tournament of which Rose had the Millennium symbol on her forehead?"

"Yes," Yami said. "When she broke Marik's mind spell."

"Well, I am quite certain that Rose's heart is what's known as the lost millennium Item."

"Millennium item?" Solomon said in disbelief.

"Indeed." Arthur said, "The Millennium Heart it's called. Also known as the Heart of Protection."

_"Protection..." _Yugi said to himself, thinking of Rose's nightmare the night before.

"But, aren't there only seven millennium items?" Yami asked, quite confused.

"Well, yes there has only been seven items for millennia. However, notice here how there is a section of this tablet that has been broken off?" he said, pointing to the edge of the tablet.

"What is it that used to be there?" Rose asked.

Arthur smiled as his eyes lit up, the kind of response an excited archaeologist would get when talking of his breath taking research. "Quite a few years ago I was working with some old colleagues who claimed they had found the other part to this tablet. It was apparently separated years before by some thieves who were looking for the Millennium Heart, wanting to gain it's powers. Once they found the tablet and saw what was depicted on it, they tried to destroy that part of it so that nobody else could find it, but it turns out they simply buried it underground. When I questioned my colleagues about it they showed me the photos they had taken of the stone carvings, and it was quite incredible indeed."

"But what did that section of the tablet say?" Yami asked.

Arthur looked to the tablet behind him, "Like this one, the small stone carvings told a story. It was hard to decipher because of how worn away the carvings were, but I remember it talking about a young girl who held The Millennium Heart on her chest, and it granted her magnificent powers. However, the tablet also stated that after the great battle that almost destroyed Egypt, the girl disappeared, along with the Millennium Heart, and it was never seen again."

"How strange," Yami said, eyeing the tablet in front of them where the other part had been broken off.

"Indeed," Arthur said, "Many people have gone looking for the heart over the years, but none were able to find it, and not many people still believe the stories."

The three of them were still trying to get their heads around it. "What do you know about the girl?" Yami asked.

"Well from my understanding, if you see over here, there are some carvings that abruptly cut off right where the tablet is broken," he said, pointing to the carvings next to the one of the Pharaoh. "They are written between the Pharaoh and what would be the image of the girl," Arthur explained, pointing at the carvings on the edge of the tablet. "And they translate to something along the lines of being in close alliance, which gives me the impression that the girl was at least a very good friend to the Pharaoh, but that is all I can decipher."

"My, that is fascinating," Solomon said, examining the symbols on the carving that Arthur was talking about.

"Actually I have an inkling that this girl was with the Pharaoh when he sealed his spirit within the Millennium Puzzle," Arthur continued.

"What makes you think that?" Yami asked, quite curious about his idea. Arthur was talking about his past after all.

"Well, I remember my colleagues mentioning that in the tablet they found, there was talk of the Pharaoh and the girl both disappearing at the same time at the end of the great battle of Egypt. The towns people knew that the Pharaoh would return some day, but were not so sure what had happened to the girl or the heart however."

"Where is the tablet now?" Solomon asked, finally turning away from the one in front of him.

Arthur furrowed his eyebrows, "Now that I'm not sure of, I have not been in contact with those fellows for quite some time unfortunately."

Rose was looking at the tablet questionably, now having a billion more questions to ask. But eventually, she chose the one that was bugging her the most. "So, how does all this explain how _I_ have the heart?" she asked.

"Well, that's a tough question," Arthur said, "You explained that you don't remember anything before a few years ago, and you had a tattoo of a heart on your chest, that materialised into the Millennium Heart. That's quite unusual. Im afraid I do not have an answer for that. But what I am certain of is that the Millennium Heart has returned and you are now its holder. Whatever you encountered before you lost your memory must have lead to this somehow."

"Wow..." Rose said, gazing at the tablet. She then sighed, placing her hand to the back of her head, "This is giving me a headache," she said.

"You're not the only one," Yami agreed.


	16. Chapter 16 - A Blast From The Past

**Chapter 16 - A Blast From The Past**

"What I don't understand," Yugi said, sitting on his bed, "is how the millennium symbol isn't on the heart like it is every other millennium item."

"Yeah," Rose said, slowly spinning around on his desk chair, "It's on your puzzle, and on the Rod that Marik had, and on Ishizu's necklace," she stopped, looking over at the items Yugi had acquired at the end of Battle City.

"I wish we knew more about it," Yugi said, lying on his back so he was looking up at the ceiling. "Like, how did it disappear all those years ago and then suddenly return?" He asked. "What do you think, Pharaoh?"

_"I'm not sure," _Yami said, his spirit sitting on the end of Yugi's bed, _"I remember as much of my past as Rose does of hers."_

"Well that's inconvenient," Rose said, "both people who have come across the heart don't remember a thing," she sighed.

_"You must have discovered the heart sometime before your accident," _Yami said. _"And it would have merged with you just like the girl in Arthur's story." _

"But how on earth would I have discovered it by accident if people have been searching for it for years? It just doesn't make sense," she pushed off the desk, spinning on the chair again. "If only we could look up that girl in some ancient egyptian history book."

"Or even better," Yugi said with a chuckle, "Get the Pharaoh's memory back and just ask him."

Yami nodded,_ "Yes, Arthur said I was in 'close alliance' with her as the tablet depicted. But I'm afraid getting my memory back will be quite a difficult task."_

Rose sighed, "If only we could... look into the heart and see what's inside it," she said miserably. There was silence for a moment as the three of them sat there, wishing they knew more.

_"Maybe we can," _Yami suddenly said, the glint of an idea in his eyes. _"Yugi, may I?"_

"Hm?" Yugi said, being pulled out of his thoughts, "Oh, of course." They swapped places, and Yami sat up where Yugi had been lying on the bed.

"What do you mean maybe we can?" Rose asked. "What's your idea?"

Yami sat on the edge of the bed, "Well it appears that the Puzzle and your heart are connected somehow," he explained, "like they have some sort of ancient bond. Maybe if I tapped into the power of the Millennium Puzzle we could see into the Millennium Heart."

_"That sounds crazy enough that it just might work," _Yugi said, his spirit now beside Yami.

"It's worth a try," Rose said, standing up. "Let's do it."

"Alright." Yami stood up so he was facing Rose, and he closed his eyes, holding his hands around the puzzle. It started glowing brightly, and the millennium symbol appeared on his forehead. Rose looked down and saw the Millennium Heart glowing. That's when everything went black.

...

Rose opened her eyes and saw whiteness above her. She sat up, and saw that there was nothing but white walls surrounding her and a beautiful grand staircase sat in front of her, leading up to a large metal door. She looked to her side and saw both Yami and Yugi sitting next to her.

"Are you alright?" Yami asked.

"I'm fine," Rose said, getting up, "But where are we?"

"I believe we're inside the millennium heart," he said.

"It looks a lot different to the puzzle," Yugi said. "A lot less confusing." They slowly walked up the staircase to the door, and Rose closely admired each detail as she went. They reached the door, and saw that carved into it was a beautiful swirling pattern, and in the middle was a solid gold heart. Rose reached out to open the door.

"Be careful," Yami said, "We don't know what could be behind it." The door opened and they were blinded by light, which soon subsided. Before them was a long white corridor, with doors either side, all with similar designs to the one they had just come through, each with a gold heart in the middle.

"Well, the decorators sure spent more time here than in the puzzle,"Yugi joked, looking at the beautifully designed doors. Rose silently walked over to the first door and pushed it open. Once again they were blinded by the light behind it, and were soon pulled inside the room. The next thing they knew was that they were hurtling downwards through darkness. The speed they were falling at slowed and then stopped, and they realised they were floating above the millennium stone. It appeared to be in an underground room made of stone, and moonlight was shining through the entrance at the top of the stairs.

"What's that?" Rose asked, pointing down at the stone.

"The Millennium Stone," Yami said.

"Grandpa told me about that!" Yugi said, "It's supposed to be sitting underground in Egypt."

"And where are we?" Rose asked.

"I assume this would be Egypt then," Yami said.

"Shh," Rose said, "Do you hear that? Someone's coming."

They observed as a small pair of legs appeared at the stop of the stairs, and then a voice, "Where are you going?" came the sound of a young boy.

The person at the stairs came down into the underground room, and they all gasped.

"There's something down here," the little girl said. She looked no older than about twelve, had long dark hair and piercing brown eyes. She also had a mischievous grin on her face.

"That's..." Yami said, his eyes wide, unable to finish the sentence.

"It can't be," Rose said, staring at the girl with a bewildered expression.

"Rose, she looks just like you!"Yugi blurted. They continued to watch, as the girl was unfazed by their presence.

"But, Rose!" The little boy said, emerging at the top of the stairs, "It's creepy here, we should go back." He ran down the stairs to catch up with her. He had very light hair, hanging just over his ears, and an unsure expression on his face.

"This _was _your idea, you know," the girl said, curiously wandering around the room.

"Look at what they're wearing,"Yugi said, indicating their ancient egyptian attire.

"Yes," Yami said, "I'm sure this isn't from a few years ago."

"Try adding a couple thousand to that," Rose said, still not believing what was in front of her.

"Yeah but I don't like it here," the boy said, "I think there are _things _in the shadows."

"Oh don't be such a baby," the girl said, "There's nothing here."

"Don't you hear those voices?" he said, walking further into the room towards her, "I think this place is haunted or something!"

"Didn't I tell you there's no such thing as ghosts Nami?"

"Even if there isn't, our parents would kill us if they knew we were at Kul Elna!" Nami said, clearly worried.

"Relax, we have plenty of time before they wake up. I thought you wanted an adventure."

"Yeah well I changed my mind," Nami said. "This place is filled with ghosts and it's creeping me out."

"Don't you want to see where the millennium items were created?" the girl asked, walking over to the stone. Nami hesitated, before following after her cautiously. "Look," she said, "There are holes in this rock in the shapes of the millennium items, even the one the Pharaoh has!"

"Yeah that is pretty cool, can we go now?" Nami asked.

The girl sighed, "Alright, if this place bothers you that much..." She turned to leave when something caught her eye. She stopped and turned around while Nami made his way to the stairs.

"What's this?" The girl asked, kneeling down to pick up what appeared to be a shiny rock.

Rose gasped, "That's the Millennium Heart!"

The girl's face lit up as she held the heart in her hand, "It's beautiful..." she said in awe.

"Rose, come on!" Nami said, getting impatient, as he started walking up the stairs. The girl held the heart against her chest and it heart lit up, merging itself with her. The millennium symbol appeared on her forehead for a moment before disappearing.

"Rose!" Nami called out, "Come on!"

The girl was quite shocked, but after hearing Nami call out to her, she ran up the stairs and out of sight. That's when Rose, Yami and Yugi were pulled away from the scene and felt like they were dumped back in the real world. Rose and Yami found themselves sitting on the floor in Yugi's room again.

_"We're back," _Yugi said, looking around.

"Wow," Rose said, gazing at the floor in front of her. "I don't know what to think of that."

Yami was silent for a moment. "Well I'm sure that it's no coincidence that that little girl had the same name as you _and _looked exactly like you," Yami said. "I'm sure the millennium heart just showed us how you discovered it."

"But...how?" Rose asked, unable to comprehend the idea.

"If I'm correct," Yami began, "those doorways we saw in that corridor must be all the memories that the heart has."

_"Behind each door must be a different memory,"_ Yugi said.

"Yes," Yami agreed, "so then that first one we went through was its first memory-when you discovered it," he said to Rose.

She was sitting there, conflicting expressions on her face. She sighed, "This is all too much to take in," Rose said, standing up so she could pace back and forth. "If that's is all true, then that means..." she stopped, staring out the window.

"That you are the girl that Arthur spoke of," Yami said, watching her carefully.

Rose turned around, "Then how am I here in the 21st century?" she asked.

_"Now that's a good question," _Yugi said.


	17. Chapter 17 - Seeing Is (not?) Believing

**Chapter 17 - Seeing Is (not?) Believing**

That night, Rose sat in her bed, unable to keep her restless mind from running in circles. The events of the day were plaguing her mind so much that she couldn't force herself to sleep. Arthur's words echoed in her head as she remembered staring down at the miniature version of herself standing in the underground cavern.

_"These carvings translate to something along the lines of being in close alliance, which gives me the impression that the girl was at least a very good friend to the Pharaoh..."_

_Good friend to the pharaoh..._ Rose thought to herself. She couldn't imagine meeting the Pharaoh in any other circumstance than those she had now. The idea was quite odd to her, especially since he wouldn't be here if it weren't for Yugi.

_"I also have an inkling that this girl was with the Pharaoh when he sealed his spirit within the Millennium Puzzle..."_

_Could that be how I ended up here? _She thought to herself. _But he is a spirit, and I have my own flesh and blood body, this doesn't make any sense!_

Rose groaned in frustration and sat up, looking around her room, "This is just stupid," she muttered. _I grew up in ancient Egypt, _she thought to herself, as if trying to convince herself. _I saw it with my own eyes, so why am I having such a hard time believing it? _Normally people would say 'seeing is believing' but Rose couldn't even agree with that at the moment. She climbed out of bed and tip toed out of her room, not wanting to wake the rest of the house. She stopped however when she noticed Yugi's bedroom door wide open. She peeked inside, and found the room empty, his bedsheets thrown to the side. Curious as to where he had disappeared to at this time of morning, Rose walked downstairs. She assumed she would find him sitting in the kitchen, like lots of kids in the orphanage would do when they couldn't sleep. When she walked around the corner however, he wasn't anywhere to be seen. She continued out into the game shop, quite confused as to his disappearance, and then saw the front door was cracked open. Wandering over to it, she looked outside. Sitting just outside on the footpath was Yugi, staring up at the stars. She smiled; Yugi looked so happy and care free, it was hard to believe all the crazy stuff he had gone through already, and he wasn't even out of school yet.

"Can't sleep too, huh?" she said, sitting next to him.

"Not really," he said, shaking his head. "My mind won't shut up."

"Same here," she said. "After everything we found out today, I'm too worked up to get to sleep." She then noticed that Yugi was holding his deck. "Why do you have that out here?" she asked curiously.

"When I was younger and couldn't sleep, I'd come out here with my Duel Monster cards and see which ones the stars resembled."

"That's pretty cool," Rose said, "did it work?"

He nodded, "I'd eventually get tired of looking at the stars, I almost fell asleep out here a few times."

Rose chuckled, before taking Yugi's deck, sorting through the cards, "Well let's see..." she looked up at the stars, trying to form a shape with them. "There, Kuriboh!" she pointed up.

"Yeah, I see it," Yugi said, smiling. "And if you ignore that cluster of stars there, it looks like the Dark Magician."

"Where?" Rose asked, turning her head to the side and awkwardly squinting, "I can't see it."

Yugi laughed, "I was joking, I've never been able to find the Dark Magician in the sky."

Rose laughed with him, "Well if you have a good enough imagination, anything could be in the sky."

"Good point," Yugi laughed. After a moment, Rose let herself fall back so that she was lying down, looking up at the stars. Yugi did the same. "The stars are all so different here," she said.

"What do you mean?" Yugi asked.

"Well the stars that you can see back where I used to live aren't here, like the Southern Cross and Orion's Belt."

"I haven't heard of either of those," Yugi said with a laugh.

"It's no surprise," Rose said, "You can only see those down in the southern countries, thus 'The Southern Cross'."

"Ah," Yugi said, "That would be why I haven't heard of them." After a moment of silence, a thought crossed Yugi's mind. "Hey Rose, what was it like back in Australia? You never told us much about it."

"That's because there isn't much to tell," Rose said with a shrug.

"Well...where did you work?" he asked curiously.

"A small grocery store," Rose said. "I just did floor duties: filling the shelves, date checking, boring stuff really."

"And you didn't even make any friends there?" Yugi asked.

Rose shook her head, still looking up at the sky, "The only people I got along with were my Manager and a few of the supervisors, but we never really said much to each other. There was this one guy I spoke to a few times, but then I went on the cruise and well...you know the rest."

"Hmm," Yugi said, looking at the stars above them, "Do you miss home at all?"

"Not a bit," Rose said without hesitation, "I told you, I wouldn't call Australia home. To me, home is where the people I care about are, and that's right here."

Yugi smiled, "I'm glad we found you, Rose."

"So am I," she laughed, "It's good to finally have some real friends."

"I know what you mean," Yugi said. "Before I put together the millennium puzzle I was like you; I had no friends," he explained. "I was really shy and kept to myself a lot, not wanting to bother anyone, but thanks to Yami I have more confidence in myself, and I have a bunch of great friends to show for it," Yugi smiled, looking down at the millennium puzzle as he held it in his hands.

Rose smiled, "It's good how everything turns out right, isn't it?"

"Yep," Yugi smiled, "but our adventures aren't over yet, I just know it."

...

"Whoa whoa whoa hold up a second," Joey said, cutting Yugi off mid-sentence as they stood in the park the next day. "So you're saying that Rose is a five thousand year old spirit like the one from your puzzle?"

"The Pharaoh, yes," Yugi said.

"Since I've known you I've had to believe a lot of crazy stuff, but how is that possible?"

Rose stood to the side awkwardly, not quite sure what to say, she was having trouble coming to terms with this herself. "We're not sure," she said.

"Then how can you be sure that what professor Hawkins said was true?" Joey asked, "No disrespect to the guy or anything but just think about it."

"We're positive," Yami said. Once again, they had swapped places without Rose noticing. She noted that she should probably pay more attention. "Last night the Millennium Heart showed us a vision from the past," Yami explained, "It showed us the very first time Rose came across it, and there is no denying what we saw."

Joey scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, alright, this is hurting my head, I'll just take your word for it."

"Don't worry about it Joey," Tea said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Yeah man," Tristan agreed, "I don't understand half the stuff that happens to us."

"I'd be surprised if Rose wasn't having trouble understanding it herself, right Rose?" Tea looked to her.

"Yeah," Rose said, "And what makes it harder is I don't remember anything before a few years ago, and in the vision I looked no older than twelve, so everything in between is still a mystery."

Yami had gone back into the puzzle, but Rose still heard him when he spoke, _"Yes, well, it seems like we have more in common than we first thought." _

"You can say that again," Rose laughed.

"Hey Pharaoh," Yugi perked up, "Do you think this would explain why you and Rose can communicate even when you're in the puzzle?"

_"I don't think it's the answer, but it certainly has something to do with it, yes." _

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see," Rose said with a shurg.

"Hey are you guys coming to the arcade or are you going to keep mumbling to yourselves?" Joey asked. Him, Tea and Tristan were now ten metres ahead while Rose and Yugi had been talking to Yami.

"Actually we were going to get Rose a duel disk," Yugi said, "now that Kaiba has released them to the public anyone can duel at any time."

"Alright," Joey said, "We'll catch up later then," and the three of them headed off towards the arcade.

"I guess they don't want to go to Kaiba Land," Yugi laughed.

"Well you don't have to be a genius to know how Joey and Seto get along," Rose said.

They headed to Kaiba Land which was basically a big dome filled with duelling arenas, and at the front was where you could buy the duel disks. They walked in the front door and immediately heard a familiar voice.

"Hey Yugi," it was Mokuba, who'd just finished talking to Roland. He walked over to them. "What brings you guys here?" he asked.

"We came to get Rose a duel disk," Yugi said.

"It's great that Kaiba has put them on sale for anyone to use," Rose added.

"Yeah, my brother is pretty cool, although now that we're selling the duel disks, our arena's aren't as busy anymore."

"Well maybe we'll drop by another day and put them to use," Yugi said.

"You better," Mokuba said, before saying goodbye and disappearing.

"How does a person like Seto have such a sweet little brother?" Rose asked once the boy had disappeared.

"Kaiba's a nice guy at heart," Yugi said, "He just has too big of an ego to show it."


	18. Chapter 18 - The Stubborn CEO

**Chapter 18 - The Stubborn CEO**

Once Yugi and Rose had bought the duel disk they were about to leave when Mokuba came back.

"Hey Yugi!" He said, stopping them.

Yugi turned around, surprised at the boy's return, "What is it Mokuba?"

"I almost forgot," the boy said, "Seto has been working on some new state of the art duel technology, I want to show you," Mokuba said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Sure," Yugi said.

"That sounds awesome," Rose added as they started to head out of the shop.

Mokuba stopped, "Sorry Rose, but this is exclusive, only the king of games can see it at this point," he explained. "Don't worry, it'll only take a minute."

"Alright," Rose said, "I'll just explore the shop then..." As Yugi and Mokuba disappeared out the back, Rose aimlessly wandered around the shop. She noticed that it was now empty, and the man standing at the counter looked quite bored. The next minute that Rose looked over, he was disappearing through a door next to the counter, with a password entry attached to it. _There's nothing wrong with being curious, _Rose thought as she ran over to the door, stopping it just before it closed. Poking her head through the door, she saw a long corridor that stretched out in both directions. The door straight across from her had the words _'Duel Experiment Chamber'_ written on it.

Curious, Rose walked across the corridor and over to the door, cracking it open to have a look inside. It appeared to be some sort of virtual duelling client, where the challenger faces a robot. Rose was quite surprised however, when she noticed it was Kaiba that was duelling the computer. It wasn't for much longer though, because the computer had all three egyptian god monsters out, and obliterated the rest of his life points. Kaiba growled in annoyance as Rose walked into the room, looking around curiously. He had not noticed that she was there, and when he turned around and saw her he almost made a startled noise. This was the last person he had expected to run into. She intrigued him though, he had kept his distance during Battle City because he had no time to worry about why a strange girl looked familiar to him. But now that was all over and he was moving on from his defeat, only to become an even better duellist than before, for the one day that he would finally defeat Yugi.

His surprise turned into confusion, "Rose? What are you doing here?"

"I came to buy a duel disk," she said holding up the box with a grin.

"This is a restricted area," he said, "I don't know how you managed to get back here," he said, taking his duel disk off, sporting his usual smirk.

Rose grinned, "I have my ways."

Kaiba gave her an amused grunt as he walked over to the side of the room and put the duel disk back on the wall, "Either that or I need to increase my security."

"Probably both," she said with a wave of her hand. "So what is this place?" she asked, placing the box on the ground as she looked around the chamber.

"This is my state of the art Duelling Chamber, where I can test my best strategies before I put them to use," he said in his usual gloating manner.

Rose smirked, "Then how come you just lost?"

His smirk turned into a glare, "That's none of your business," he said, crossing his arms.

Rose held her hands up, "sorry," she said, "I was just curious." She then decided to change the subject, "Also, I figured out why you seemed so familiar when I met you," she said casually.

"Hmm?" Kaiba said, becoming quite confused.

"Back in Noah's virtual world," she said, "I thought I had seen you somewhere before, and now I know why."

Kaiba was beginning to get a little worried, he knew he had recognised her from somewhere, but the fact that she was saying the same thing was bothering him. "Well I'm sure it's just a mistake," he said, turning to walk away from her.

"Seto, hear me out for a second," Rose said.

Suppressing a sigh, Kaiba stopped and half turned back towards her. "Fine, grace me with your words," he said.

"At Battle City, during your duel with Yugi, I remember hearing about you having Egyptian heritage."

Kaiba scrunched up his nose, "That's a load of rubbish," he said.

"Let me finish," Rose said, "It would make sense that I would recognise you if you have a connection to ancient Egypt, as so do I."

Kaiba clenched his teeth, _Why is it that everyone around he apparently comes from Egypt? This is all a load of nonsense just made to mess with my head. _

"Believe what you want to believe, but I'll have no part in it," Kaiba said. "I told you geeks, destiny doesn't exist in my books, I choose my own path and that's that."

"I didn't say anything about destiny," Rose pointed out, to Kaiba's surprise. "You're using your old excuses to prove me wrong, only thing is destiny has nothing to do with it," she said, crossing her arms.

Kaiba turned so he was facing her fully, "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I'm talking about the past, not the future," Rose said, "Last night I found out that I grew up in Egypt with the Pharaoh, and somehow ended up here."

"How can you believe such nonsense?" he asked stubbornly.

Rose shrugged, "I saw it with my own eyes," she said, "Doesn't mean I'm not having a hard time believing it." She uncrossed her arms, "Anyway, Yugi is probably waiting for me, I'll see you around," and without a second glance, she picked up her duel disk box before heading out of the room, leaving Kaiba staring after her with a bewildered expression on his face.

Kaiba couldn't figure out whether he liked this girl or not, in any usual circumstance, anybody who was friends with Yugi he wasn't fond of. But there was something about Rose that was different, she wasn't just a part of the group, she was separate from them also. And it was only a small thing, but the fact that she was the only one who called him Seto just made him more curious about her. The other thing was, she was now a part of the whole Egypt thing, which bugged him even more. _She must have been in one of those visions made to mess with my head, _he thought, _that must be why I recognise her. _None the less, as much as he hated to admit it, he wanted to know more about her so that he could prove to himself she was just like everyone else: not worth wasting his time on.

Rose walked back into the shop casually and saw Yugi standing there, looking quite confused.

"Hey Yugi," she said, approaching him.

He turned around, "There you are! Where did you go wandering to?"

Rose shrugged, "I paid Seto a visit."

"You went and saw Kaiba?" Yugi asked, using a tone that made it sound as if he didn't believe her. They turned and headed out of the shop as they continued to talk.

"Well, not intentionally," Rose explained, "I went for a walk and ran into him."

"Wow," Yugi said, "I didn't think it would be easy to find Kaiba in his complex, I figured he'd be up in his office on the top floor."

Rose shook her head, "He was testing out his 'duelling chamber' thing, and losing might I add."

Yugi looked quite surprised, "That was the secret technology Mokuba was showing me!"

"Well it's not so secret anymore," Rose laughed. They walked through the park as they headed for the arcade, intending to meet up with the others.

Yugi was quite eager to have a duel against Rose, and a thought occurred to him, "So if those cards you chose back in Noah's virtual world weren't actually yours, what is in your deck?" he asked.

"Well quite a few of them were mine, but I picked cards like Celtic Guardian, Dark Magician and Gaia the Dragon champion because there was just something about them that seemed familiar to me, and I wanted to try out some new cards. But my own deck is special, it took me three years to build this deck, and I've put every bit of my heart in it," she said with a smile.

_"Then I'm sure you'll have quite a strong deck," _Yami said, startling her. He hadn't been present in their conversation until now. He chuckled, _"Forget I was here, did you?" _

"Maybe..." Rose said, swatting at him with her hand as he chuckled. Of course, her hand simply passed through him. She grumbled, folding her arms.

"Could I have a look at your deck?" Yugi asked.

"Sure," Rose pulled out her deck and handed it to him. Yugi took it from her and started looking through the cards curiously.

"Wow, what's this card?" Yugi asked, holding up one of them for her to see.

Rose smiled, "That's my rarest monster, Valkyria."

"I've never heard of her before," he said, gazing at the card.

"She's very special to me. You know how I said that when I woke up with no memory the only thing I had was this necklace?" she pointed at the delicately shaped 'Rose' hanging around her neck. "Well, I kinda skipped a part."

"What do you mean?" Yugi asked, blinking at her.

"The doctors told me that they found this card in my pocket after the accident, and that I was very lucky to be alive. I had no idea what it meant to me before, but It was the only duel monsters card I had with me, and it's a miracle that I'm alive in the first place, so it's always been special to me," she explained.

"Wow," Yugi said, "That's great. Well I don't have a story like that but I've just always trusted my Dark Magician, and he's always pulled through for me, so he's my best card," he said with a smile.

"I don't know what it is about spell casters," Rose said, "But they are my favourite type of monster," she grinned.

"Yugi Moto!" Startled, they both spun around to see a girl and boy approaching them, not looking too friendly.

"We've been looking for you," the girl said, a greedy smirk on her face.

The boy nodded, "And we're not leaving until we get what we want!"


	19. Chapter 19 - The Duelling Duo

**Chapter 19 - The Duelling Duo**

"Huh?" Yugi said with a bewildered expression, "Who are you two?" Him and Rose just stared at the duo who had just approached them. Rose saw that they had a resemblance and guessed they were brother and sister.

"My name is Matt" the boy said.

"And I'm Mindy," the girl added.

"And we're twins!" they said together.

"Oh god," Rose muttered, _What kind of parents names their twins Matt and Mindy? _"And what does this have to do with Yugi?" she asked.

"We're the best duellists in all of Domino and we want a shot at the King of Games!" Mindy said, pointing at him.

"We've beaten every duellist that's come our way so far and we deserve that title!" Matt said, "So duel us if you want to keep your crown."

"Fine," Yugi said, pulling out his deck, "If you want a duel, it's a duel you'll get." Yugi put on his duel disk and so did Matt and Mindy.

"Whoa whoa whoa hold on a second," Rose said, stepping forward, "Are you both planning on duelling Yugi?" she asked the twins.

"We always duel as a team," Matt said with a shurg.

"That's a bit unfair having two against one isn't it?" She looked to Matt and Mindy who didn't seem to have a response.

"Well then I think you should try out your new duel disk," Yami said with a smile, now standing next to Rose.

She smirked, quite in favour of the idea. "Alright you two," Rose said, turning back to them, "It'll be you two vs us, fair deal?" she asked.

"Whatever," Mindy said arrogantly, "We'll be playing by Battle City rules, so the winners get the losers best cards!" Matt had a greedy smirk on his face when Mindy said this.

"Very well," Rose said, "I'll wager my Valkyria," she found the card in her deck, showing it to them.

"And I shall put up my Dark Magician," Yami said, lifting up the card. Matt and Mindy both burst out laughing at the sight of the card. Yami turned to Rose, "...Was it something I said?"

"No clue," Rose shook her head, "I just think they're nuts," she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

The twins finally calmed down and Matt managed to speak again, "You think we want your Dark Magician? I mean sure it's a rare card and all but it's not your _rarest _card now is it?" he said with a smirk.

_"I should have known," _Yugi said.

"So you've heard about the egyptian god cards, I assume," Yami said.

"Who hasn't?" Mindy said obnoxiously, "So wager your Winged Dragon already."

"Very well," Yami said, pulling the card out of his card belt, "If you win, you shall gain my Winged Dragon of Ra."

Rose turned to look at him, "You seem awfully comfortable with wagering the most powerful card in all of Duel Monsters," she noted.

"It is indeed a very powerful card," Yami said, "And if it falls into the wrong hands terrible things could happen, but worrying about that will only distract you from the duel. Besides, I know our decks will pull through for us, as long as you believe in the heart of the cards, you will always be guided to victory."

"Yeah yeah enough with the victory speech," Mindy said, rolling her eyes.

"We have one more rule to add to this duel," Matt added.

"And what would that be?" Rose asked.

Matt smirked, "You are forbidden to use the god cards in this duel, Yugi. If you deserve to have them in your deck you should be able to win without them."

"That's a fair deal," Yami said, "I will exclude the egyptian god monsters from this duel."

"Alright, now that that's sorted," Matt said, activating his duel disk, "let's duel!"

...

The duel started off evenly, with both teams only slightly affecting each other's life points. It was clear however that Matt and Mindy's strength was their incredible team work and knowledge of each other's decks, and their strategies always paid off. They started getting ahead when they were able to predict each others moves better than Rose and Yami could, and they were paying the price.

"Rose," Yami said to her, "These two know every card in each others deck and every move they will make, they duel together all the time and it is their biggest strength. I know we have barely seen each other duel but we must try to work our strategies together or they will run rings around us."

"I know," Rose said. She then thought for a moment, "But I think I know how we can defeat these two."

He nodded, trusting she had a good idea, "Let's hope your plan works."

"Alright," Rose turned back to Matt and Mindy, Matt had Poseidra The Atlantian Dragon [ATK 2800/DEF 1600] on the field, while Mindy had Reese The Ice Mistress [ATK 800/DEF 800]. She appeared to have nothing stopping Rose from clobbering Mindy's Ice Mistress with her Queen's Knight, but Matt had a face down card that could possibly be a trap. Yami had also placed a card face down however, so she had to trust that he would back her up.

"I summon my King's Knight to the field," Rose said, placing the card on her duel disk, "And now that I have both Kings Knight and Queen's Knight on the field I can automatically summon Jack's Knight," she said, pulling out the card.

_"Well done Rose!" _Yugi said, _"Now she has 3 monsters." _

"Attack if you dare," Mindy said with a smirk.

That's exactly what I'm going to do. Queen's Knight, attack Mindy's Ice Mistress!"

As Rose's Queen's Knight headed for Mindy's monster, Mindy started laughing, "Sorry, but my Ice Mistress cannot be destroyed by any level 4 or higher monsters, nice try. Maybe next time you should try and keep up."

"Oh I already knew about that," Rose said, "Which is why I have this card- Cost Down. It lowers my monsters level by 2 stars making it able to destroy your monster," Rose grinned.

That's when Matt stepped in, "Not if I activate my mirror force trap card, your attack will just get deflected back destroying all of your monsters!"

"Sorry to disappoint you," Yami said, interrupting, "But I knew that you would have a trap waiting, so I have my own face down for you, Negate Trap!" he activated the card, and both Matt and Mindy were left staring at their empty playing field, now devoid of traps to use.

"Thanks," Rose said, flashing a smile to Yami, "Now Queen's Knight, destroy her Ice Mistress!"

Mindy did not look happy about that, as her monster went to the graveyard, "Matt what are you doing? You were supposed to cover me!"

"I did! I just didn't think they'd out-smart us!" He said, defending himself.

Mindy grunted with annoyance, "Well pick it up, otherwise we'll lose."

"Why can't you protect yourself?" Matt spat back, getting annoyed with his sisters attitude. They continued to quarrel while Rose and Yami stood there twiddling their thumbs."I think we may have cracked them," she said.

"Yes, indeed," Yami said, "We've made them question their team work skills by breaking through their strategy."

As Rose ended her turn by placing a card face down, it appeared that Matt and Mindy weren't paying attention.

"Enough! It's back to my turn now," Matt said, annoyance clear in his voice. He drew from his deck, and looked straight to Yami. "I may not have been able to attack last turn, but that doesn't matter, because now I can destroy your Gaia the Fierce Knight," he smirked, "And now you have no trap cards to protect you!" Matt laughed, "Now my dragon, destroy his knight!"

"Sorry Matt, but you failed to notice _my _face down card," Rose stepped in. "Spellbinding circle!"

"What?!" Matt said in disbelief. Him and Mindy had been so busy fighting that they didn't notice Rose place a card face down. His dragon was encased in the circle, rendering it useless. "Oh, you'll pay for that," he growled. "I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

"Thanks Rose," Yami said.

"No worries," Rose replied, "Now let's take these guys down!"

"Right," Yami nodded. "I'll start off by activating the magic card Graceful Charity, this allows me to draw three cards as long as I discard two," Rose caught a glimpse of the two cards that Yami sent to the graveyard. _Perfect, _she thought, looking at her hand. "Gaia," Yami continued, "attack Mindy directly!"

"How soon we forget," Matt said, "I just placed a trap card: Waboku! This means that the damage inflicted by your knight is reduced to 0, saving Mindy's life points."

"Very well," Yami said, not bothered by the fact that his attack failed."I'll place one card face down and end my turn then." He turned to Rose, and she guessed that he was confident that she would inflict some serious damage in her next turn. _I sure hope so, _she thought.

"That's right," Mindy said, "Now it's my turn to crush you!" She raised her nose as she drew from her deck. "I summon Ally Of Justice Enemy Catcher!" [ATK 1800/DEF 1800] She grinned as her monster appeared, "Now, attack Rose's Queen's Knight!"

"Activate Trap!" Yami said, "Reinforcements! With this card I can increase any monsters attack by 500 points during this turn, and I'm going to use this on Rose's Queen's Knight." Mindy was not happy with this, as she lost life points from her attack while Rose's monster was spared.

"Thanks," Rose said.

"No problem," Yami gave her a thumbs up, "Now crush them."

"With pleasure," Rose said with a grin. _Okay, _she thought, _I only have one shot at drawing the card I need, please please let this be the card I need..._ she drew.

"It's over!" she said to Matt and Mindy, a wicked grin spread across her face. "For the card I drew is Polymerisation!"

"Polymerisation? What's that going to do?" Mindy asked.

"You may not be aware of the incredibly powerful monster that is created by merging my three knights together," Rose said. Matt and Mindy were speechless; they obviously hadn't. "Now, I merge my three knights together to form Arcana Knight Joker!" Matt and Mindy's jaws dropped when the new Knight formed. With 3800 attack points, there would not be an easy way for them to defeat it, if they could at all.

"You lied!" Mindy announced, pointing an accusing finger at Rose, "You said Valkyria was your best monster!"

Rose shook her head, "I said Valkeria was my rarest monster, not my strongest," Rose said. "You failed to be specific with the details of the card I should wager. Not that it matters now for you are about to lose! Now, I'll activate my Grave Robber trap."

"What on earth do you want to take from our grave yard?" Matt asked, dumbfounded.

Rose smirked, "I don't want anything from _your _grave yard, it's my partner's that I'm after."

"Mine?" Yami asked, not quite catching on to her plan.

"Yep, and the card I want is Defusion Wave Motion, you discarded it last turn didn't you?"

"Indeed I did," Yami said with a smile, pulling out the card and throwing it to her, "Excellent move."

"What does that do?" Mindy asked, obviously flustered.

"Once I activate it and attack you, all of your monsters will be destroyed!" Rose grinned, she was very much enjoying herself. She played her magic card, and announced her attack on their monsters.

"Wait I have a magic card!" Matt said "Ha! Swords of Revealing Light will stop you!"

"I'm afraid not," Rose said, "My Jokers ability allows me to negate the effect of your magic card if I discard my own," She sent De-spell to the grave yard, "Now Arcana, destroy all their monsters and the rest of their life points!" Their monsters were destroyed in one blast, and Matt and Mindy were left standing there, shock plastered on their faces.

"But...we can't lose..." Mindy said, sinking to her knees. After a moment, she shook her head and stood up, turning to her brother, "This is all your fault!" she yelled at him.

As they started quarrelling again Rose threw Yami's card back to him.

"That was excellent duelling," Yami said to her.

"Thanks," Rose said, "I was a bit rusty after not duelling for a while though."

"I wouldn't have guessed," he said with a chuckle. They turned back to Matt and Mindy who were still arguing.

"I believe you two owe us your rarest cards," Rose said to them, "They were your terms."

Mindy sighed and threw a card to Rose. She flipped it over, "Meteor Black Dragon?" It was a fusion monster. "Hey I have Meteor Dragon, this could be useful. What card did you get?" she turned to Yami.

"Valkyrion the Magna Warrior," he said, looking down at the card, "But I need the three magnet warriors if I want to summon him."

"Figures," Rose said, "Why don't we go to the game shop and have a look for them?" she suggested.

Yami and Yugi swapped back, "Good idea," Yugi said.


	20. Chapter 20 - Missing In Action

Chapter 20 - Missing In Action

"Rose, Rose wake up!" Yugi nudged her as she slept comfortably in her bed.

She let out an annoyed groan and rolled over, "What time is it?" she mumbled into her pillow.

"Doesn't matter, you said you'd come with me and Joey to Kaiba Corp so we can use their duelling platforms," he said, poking her again.

"Not if it's before 9 o'clock," she said, pulling the covers up over her head.

"Aw, come on Rose," Yugi said, pulling them back, "Don't you want to see Valkyrion in action?"

Rose jokingly hissed at the sunlight coming in through her now open curtains, Yugi just laughed. "Fine," Rose said, "go ahead and I'll catch up." Rose pulled her blankets back out of Yugi's hands, and he smiled, victorious.

"Don't take too long, alright?" he said heading for the door.

"I won't," Rose said. Yugi walked out and Rose pulled the covers back over her, _I'll just doze for ten minutes..._

_..._

**_BUZZ!_**

Rose was woken up by the loud vibration of her phone on the bedside table. Startled, she sat up and fumbled for her phone. She just managed to glimpse the time before she answered it, it had been an hour since Yugi left.

She lifted the phone to her ear, "Hello?"

"Rose, it's Joey," although Joey normally sounded happy and care-free, he didn't sound like either of those at the moment.

"Hey Joey, what's up?" Rose asked sleepily.

"Where are you?"

"I'm at home, why?" Rose was getting quite concerned with the tone in Joey's voice.

"Is Yugi still there?"

"No, he left to meet you an hour ago..." she said.

"Well he hasn't shown up."

Rose was suddenly on her feet, "I'll be there in 10, hang tight." With that, she hung up, pulled some clothes on and darted out the door.

...

"Joey!" Rose called out to him as she ran over, "Still no sign of him?" she asked, as she stopped and tried to regain her breath.

"Not one bit," Joey said. He looked around nervously, "It isn't like Yug to disappear like this."

"No it isn't." Rose was worried. Yugi seemed to always have someone after him, for whatever reason. "Wait! My Millennium Heart!" she piped up.

"What about it?" Joey asked.

"It seems to have some form of connection with Yugi's puzzle, maybe I can use my heart to find him."

"That's a great idea!" Joey said, suddenly hopeful.

"Alright millennium heart," Rose said, "lead me to Yugi..." She closed her eyes and focused on finding the millennium puzzle. The Millennium Heart lit up and Rose felt like it was pulling her forwards. She knew she had found it.

"This way!" She said, running ahead.

"Hold up!" Joey said, stumbling over his feet then running to catch up with her. "Are you sure you know where you're going?"

"Positive!" Rose said, calling back over her shoulder. They ran back the way Rose had come for a little while, then turned down a narrow alley. Rose could feel the presence of the millennium puzzle. "He's just around the corner!" she yelled back to Joey with triumph. They rounded the corner and stopped. The alley was completely empty except for some small trash bins. Rose's heart sank. "But I was so sure...I can sense the millennium puzzle right here," she slumped back against the wall.

"You're still getting used to using that heart thingy of yours," Joey said, "Maybe you just need more practice." Rose was sure the heart was right. She could sense the presence of the millennium puzzle as if it were right next to her. That's when she noticed something glint out of the corner of her eye. She looked over to the trash bins and gasped.

"The millennium puzzle!" She ran over and picked it up, it looked like it had been thrown behind the bins.

"Why is the puzzle here? Yugi would never leave it behind," Joey said, scratching his head.

"I know..." Rose said.

"Yugi!" Joey called out, "Where are ya buddy?" There was no answer.

Rose knew she had been able to sense _someone. _But it wasn't Yugi. "Pharaoh? Are you in there?" she held up the puzzle.

_"Rose!" _Yami's spirit appeared before her. _"I've lost contact with Yugi." _

"What happened?" Rose asked.

_"We were on our way to meet Joey, but we were being followed by two thugs. I didn't notice until it was too late." _

"Where is he?" She asked.

_"I don't know, they threw the puzzle over here and dragged him that way,"_ he pointed ahead.

"Well let's go find him!" Rose said. She hung the puzzle around her neck and her and Joey took off in the direction that Yami had pointed out. "Do you have any idea what they want with Yugi?" Rose asked Yami as they ran.

_"I'm not sure, there's always someone that's after us for some reason, but for once it's not the puzzle." _

"That's strange," Rose said.

_"Indeed," _he nodded.

_..._

The two henchmen finally let go of Yugi, and he fell straight onto his ass. They laughed as Yugi groaned from the drop and they stepped back. Yugi then heard another laugh and looked up.

"So you're the one behind all this!" he said, quickly getting to his feet.

"Is that how you greet an old friend?" Bakura said with a smirk. Of course it wasn't Bakura, it was the evil spirit of the Millennium Ring. "Not even a hello?"

"What do you want from me?" Yugi demanded.

"Isn't it obvious? I want your puz-" He stopped mid sentence when he realised Yugi didn't have the puzzle around his neck. "Where is the millennium puzzle?" he demanded.

"Your goons threw it away," Yugi said none too kindly.

"You imbeciles!" Bakura yelled to the two men at the back. "Why the hell did you throw away that artefact?"

"We thought it was some cheap rip off," one of them said.

"Yeah and it was annoying us, so we disposed of it," the other said.

"What did you do with it?" Bakura demanded.

"It's sitting behind a trash can somewhere," the first one said.

Bakura obviously wasn't very happy with them, as he clenched his teeth when he next spoke. "Go do something useful and guard the front door, if you're even capable of doing _that_ properly." The two goons shrugged and left the room. "No matter," Bakura continued, "I still want those god cards of yours, so duel me if you want to leave here in one piece."

"Fine," Yugi said, pulling out his deck. "You're on."

...

"How on earth are we supposed to find where Yugi went?" Joey asked, stopping to catch his breath.

"I don't know," Rose said, her hope fading. That's when they heard voices nearby.

"I don't think he's very happy with us," one of the voices said.

"Who cares, we're still gonna get paid for bringing the boy here," the other said.

"Bingo," Rose said, before running around the corner.

"Hey wait up!" Joey said, following her. They saw a big abandoned warehouse up ahead. Rose looked up and saw a very tall tower reaching up into the sky above them. She then noticed two very tall well built men were guarding the door.

_"They are the ones who took Yugi!" _Yami said.

Because Joey couldn't hear the Pharaoh, Rose repeated what he said, "Joey, those two are the ones who took Yugi!"

"Hey creeps!" Joey called out, running towards them, "What did you do with Yugi?" he demanded.

"What, you mean that little runt? He's inside with-"

The other guy elbowed him, "you idiot, we're not supposed to tell anybody."

"Let us in you big creep!" Joey said.

"How about this: if you both can defeat us in a duel we'll let you in, but if we beat you we get your rarest cards."

"What are you doing?" the other one asked.

"Getting us a bonus now shut up," the fist one said. "So what do you say? Do we have a duel?"

"Rose?" Joey asked. "Are you in?"

Rose was already sliding on her duel disk, "I'm in," she said, glaring at the two men.

"Then let's duel!" Joey said.


	21. Chapter 21 - The Rescue Mission

Chapter 21 - The Rescue Mission

Bakura couldn't contain his laughter, "How does it feel now that I have one of your most powerful monsters?" He held Obelisk the Tormentor in his hand, and he grinned at it maniacally. "Next turn I'll use it to destroy you!" he said, smirking at Yugi.

"Not if I can help it," Yugi said. "I activate card destruction!"

"What?!"

"Now we both must discard our hands and draw 5 new cards," Yugi said.

Bakura was not happy with this, "No matter, I can still crush you with it even if it's in my graveyard."

"We'll see," Yugi said, and the duel continued.

...

"Not my Swordsman!" Rose called out as her beast was destroyed. Marcus-the taller of the two men -let out a laugh, "Next time don't play such weak monsters."

"Neo isn't weak," Rose retorted.

"Well if that's all you've got then you may as well quit now," the other man-who Rose found out was named James-spat.

"No way!" Joey said, drawing from his deck. "We're gonna squash you like bugs on a windscreen!" Rose laughed to herself-Joey did always seem to have amusing analogies.

"Alright, I sacrifice my Iron Knight and my Panther Warrior in order to summon Red Eyes Black Dragon!" Joey said, as his monster appeared before them.

"Red Eyes Black Dragon?" Rose said, surprised. _Of course! I forgot Joey had that monster. _

"Oh, bollocks," James said.

"Attack!" Joey said, pointing at James' monster.

"You fool!" Marcus said to James as his monster was destroyed. "I thought you were a better duellist than this!"

"Well you could give me a hand, they're working together! Why aren't we?" they continued to argue, and Rose turned to Joey.

"Hey Joey," she said, "Do your opponents always argue in a double duel? Or is it just the ones I've been in?"

"I haven't been in many double duels," Joey said. "But yeah that seems like the case, it means we're winning!" he grinned.

"Alright, that's quite enough!" James said, "It's my move now." He drew his card, but upon looking at it, didn't look very happy. "Uh, I'll place this monster in defence mode and end my turn..." he placed his card face down and Marcus looked almost infuriated.

"Alright, now it's my turn!" Rose said, drawing her card. Her eyes widened, _Meteor Dragon! _"Ha! Rose said, "You're toast!"

_"You can try out your new card," _Yami said, his spirit standing beside her.

"That's exactly what I'm going to do," Rose replied with a grin.

"She's bluffing," Marcus said, glaring at her.

"Well check this out," Rose played her polymerisation card. "I fuse together Joey's Red Eyes Black Dragon with my Meteor Dragon!"

"You have that card, Rose?" Joey asked, surprised.

"You bet I do," Rose grinned, "now come forth, Meteor Black Dragon!" Marcus and James were frozen in their places as the huge beast loomed up in front of them. With a whopping 3500 attack points, they knew they were done for. "Now my dragon, destroy Marcus' monster!" James watched with wide eyes as Marcus' life points went down to zero.

"What?! I can't lose!" Marcus yelled, "James you better not screw this up for us!"

"Sorry to disappoint you," Joey said, "but seems you just lost it's back to my turn now, and I have a little number called Change of Heart, which means I can control Rose's monster for one whole turn, hello Meteor Black Dragon!" he grinned as the monster moved to stand in front of him.

"What?!" James said. "You can't do that!"

"I just did," Joey said, "and now it gets better, I activate the magic card Enemy Controller! This allows me to switch your monster into attack mode!"

"No! I'll lose the duel!" James said miserably.

"You got that right," Joey said, "Now Meteor Black Dragon, attack!" Their dragon destroyed James' monster, leaving him standing there speechless.

"Alright!" Rose jumped up and down as James' life points fell to zero, "Well done Joey!"

"I wouldn't have been able to do that if it weren't for you," Joey said, "Where did you get that card anyway?"

"I won it in my last duel," Rose said. "Now let's go inside and find Yugi!" Joey nodded and they pushed past the two men and into the warehouse. They stopped once they had entered, and stared in front of them.

"There's nothing in here but empty space!" Joey said. The large warehouse was almost empty.

"And abandoned machinery," Rose said, wandering around. Dust had gathered on the big piles of rust that sat on the outskirts of the space.

"Yugi! Where are ya pal?" Joey called out. There was no answer but the echo of his own voice.

_"Look, ahead!" _Yami said. That's when Rose noticed another door on the far side of the warehouse.

"Joey, this way!" She called back to him, running ahead.

"Wait up!" Joey said, "be careful! We don't know what's in this place!" Rose ran through the door and found herself standing at the bottom of the tall tower they saw from outside. There was a winding old wooden staircase leading to the loft at the top. The staircase sat against the outer wall, and Rose could look straight up the middle of it to the top. The tower was fairly wide too, so she assumed going up the stairs wouldn't make her very dizzy, but it would take longer to get to the top. It looked like the staircase had seen better days though.

"He's up there, I know it," Rose said, looking up the spiral of stairs.

_"Indeed," _Yami agreed, _"Let's go." _

Rose started making her way up the stairs and Joey followed, running to catch up with her. As Rose walked up the stairs she heard a creak. When she put her foot on the next step, to her surprise it snapped in half. She lost her balance and fell backwards, "Whoa!"

Joey grabbed her shoulders from behind to stop her from falling, "I got ya."

"Thanks," Rose said, regaining her balance, "I guess this stairway is older than I thought..."

...

"Slypher, attack!" Yugi said, as the dragon destroyed Obelisk, and the rest of Bakura's life points.

"No!" Bakura yelled with rage. The blow caused his duel disk to spark, and he pulled it off, throwing it aside. The duel disk his some sort of electricity box, however, sparking a flame.

"What have you done?" Yugi said, as the box caught fire.

Bakura freaked out and ran for the fire escape. As the flames spread rapidly, Yugi tried to run across the room to follow him, but after Bakura made it over one of the beams in the loft collapsed, blocking Yugi's path. The fire was spreading fast.

"Oh no," he said, stopping dead in his tracks. Yugi turned around and headed for the door as the smoke started to fill his lungs. _I hope I can get out of here, _he thought.


	22. Chapter 22 - Tower Of Terror

**Chapter 22 - Tower Of Terror**

_"What's that up there?" _Yami asked, looking towards the top of the stairs. There was smoke filtering underneath the door leading into the room at the top.

"Look Joey! Smoke!" Rose said, pointing upwards.

"We gotta get him out of there!" Joey said, and they both started running up the stairs. Rose was a lot fitter than Joey however, and was far ahead of him when she heard the stairs behind her give out. She spun around just in time to see Joey cry out, trying to grab onto something to stop him from falling.

"Joey!" Rose said, rushing back. She couldn't reach him, however. A large section of the stairs was now gone, and Joey was clinging onto the side of one of the steps across the gap, his legs dangling over the large drop to the ground below. "Hang on Joey!" Rose said.

"Go help Yugi!" Joey said, trying to keep his grip, "I'll be fine." Rose could tell he was far from fine, he was currently holding on for dear life, otherwise he'd fall all the way back down to the floor, which was a fair way down from there.

"Joey I'm not leaving you!" Rose said.

"Yugi needs you, go!" he said forcefully.

"I'm staying here!" Rose said. "Pharaoh, are you close enough to get in contact with Yugi?"

_"I'm not sure," _he said.

...

Yugi had to dodge many fallen beams to reach the door, coughing the smoke out of his lungs as he went. He finally made it out, and was filled with relief when he managed to see through the smoke.

"Rose!" He said in surprise, making his way down the stairs, "How did you find me here?" That's when he saw that Rose wasn't alone. "Joey! Are you okay?" he rushed down and stood next to Rose across from the gap where Joey was hanging on.

"I'll be fine," Joey said, still holding his grip.

"Hang on, we'll get you back up, buddy," Yugi said with an encouraging smile.

"Yugi, I found your puzzle," Rose said, taking it off and handing it to him.

Yugi's face lit up, "my puzzle!" he grabbed it off of her and hung it back around his neck.

_"They would have never found me if it weren't for Rose's connection with the puzzle," _Yami said.

"Well I'm glad we're all back together," Yugi said. That's when they heard a snap, and Joey cried out.

"Joey!" Rose called out, but there was nothing she could do to stop him plummeting towards the ground when the stair he had been holding onto broke.

"No!" Yugi called out, "Joey!" They could hear his echoing cry as he plummeted towards the ground.

"We have to get back down there!" Rose said. The millennium puzzle lit up, and Yami was now the one standing there.

"We have to be careful," he said, "these stairs could collapse any second. Follow me," he ran down the stairs and jumped the gap, landing gracefully on the stairs below.

"How did you do that?!" Rose asked.

"To be honest I don't know," Yami said, "I just jumped, your turn."

Rose stepped back, "There's no way I can jump that far!" she said, becoming worried.

"You have to try!" Yami said, "Trust me, I'll catch you if you don't make it!"

Rose took a deep breath, before running up and jumping. She knew when she jumped that she wouldn't get both feet on the other side, but like he said, Yami caught her and pulled her in so she didn't fall back.

"Thanks," Rose said as he let her go, "Now let's go find Joey," Yami nodded and they both started running down the steps, hoping that Joey was okay.

"There he is!" Yami said, pointing down. They could see him lying at the bottom of the steps.

_"Is he alright?" _Yugi asked.

"We won't know until we get down there," Rose said. Running as fast as he could down the stairs, Yami reached him first. Kneeling next to his friend, Yami tried to find any sign of life.

"Joey, Joey can you hear me?" he said, nudging his friend.

"Wake up Joey!" Rose said, kneeling next to Yami. He could hear the anxiety in her voice. "Come on you knuckle head!" Rose said, shaking his shoulders, but he didn't move.

"Rose," Yami put his hand on her shoulder to try and calm her down, "We have to find help," He then hoisted Joey up in his arms.

_"Look! Above us!" _Yugi yelled urgently. Rose looked up and saw another section of the stairs had broken off and were hurtling towards them. Before Rose could let out a shriek, the Millennium Heart lit up, projecting a bright light between them and the broken stair pieces. When the pieces hit the light, they bounced off and fell to the side, far away from them.

Rose, Yugi and Yami were all staring with their mouths open, not quite sure what had just happened.

"Did...did the millennium heart just do that?" Yami asked.

"I...think so..." Rose said, staring at the stair pieces now lying on the ground.

"Hey! Is anybody in here?" an unfamiliar voice called out.

"Over here!" Rose called out. A figure emerged through the smoke, it was a man in a fire rescue uniform.

"Are you kids okay?" he asked.

"We are fine," Yami said, "But I wish I could say the same for our friend," he looked down at Joey who was lying limp in his arms.

"There's a paramedic crew outside," The man said, "take him to them and they'll know what to do."

"Thank you," Yami said. They all made their way back outside to see a fire truck and ambulance parked on the street.

"Wow," Rose said, "The special services sure are switched on in this city."

_"I doubt it," _Yugi said, _"Someone must have seen the smoke and called the fire station." _

They walked over to the paramedic crew and they put Joey on a stretcher. Rose and Yami then noticed Bakura sitting on the footpath-but he looked like normal Bakura, not possessed by the spirit of the Millennium ring. There was a lady that they didn't recognise talking to one of the paramedics.

"I found him lying in the alley and that's when I noticed the smoke..." she was saying. Rose and Yugi silently watched as Joey was hauled into the back of an ambulance and it sped off towards the hospital.


	23. Chapter 23 - A Fast Recovery

**Chapter 23 - A Fast Recovery**

It had been a week since the incident in the warehouse, and now Rose was sitting by Joey's hospital bed like she did every day, hoping that he would wake up. But every day, the same thing happened.

Nothing.

Each day she sat there giving him company, hoping that she had been able to stop him from falling. But you couldn't change the past no matter how much you wanted to. Rose also thought a lot about what the millennium heart could do. When it first appeared she had broken Marik's mind spell back at Battle City. Then with the help of the millennium puzzle her and Yugi had been able to see back into the past, finding out when she first found the heart. She then thought of how it had stopped those broken stair pieces from falling on them. It was almost like it created a force field. It seemed so powerful, she thought. She then remembered Arthur's words back at the museum.

_"I remember it talking about a young girl who held The Millennium Heart on her chest, and it granted her magnificent powers..."_

Rose wondered what else the heart could do. She sighed, she still didn't know anything about the Millennium Heart or the full extent of what it could do. Let alone how to use it properly. She had managed to find the millennium puzzle with it, but that was easy to do, the Millennium Heart always knew when the puzzle was around. Rose sighed and placed her hand on Joey's chest, feeling his heartbeat. She could see it on the equipment set up beside his bed, but feeling his heartbeat herself was more comforting, proving that he was still alive and still fighting. To her surprise, the millennium heart lit up. She almost pulled her hand away, but instinct told her to keep it there, resting over his heart, so she did. Rose then felt like some of her energy was being transferred to Joey as she rested her hand on his chest. She stared in amazement as he slowly gained the colour back in his cheeks.

"Wow," Yugi said from behind her. Rose almost jumped, she hadn't noticed him come in. "How are you doing that?" he asked.

"I-I don't know," Rose said, staring at Joey. She moved her hand back to her side and watched intently. _Please tell me that did something. _

That's when Joey's arm twitched. Yugi's face lit up, "He's waking up!" he said excitedly, running over to the bed.

_"Rose must have restored his energy with the Millennium Heart," _Yami said.

"Joey?" Rose said, looking for any sign of life. A smile appeared on her face as he groaned and slowly opened his eyes.

"Huh?" Joey mumbled, "Where am I?" he tried to sit up, but then realised it was painful, and slumped back down on the bed.

"Joey!" Rose said, standing up, "You're awake!"

"What happened?" he asked as he looked around, confused.

"Don't you remember Joey?" Yugi asked, "you fell from the top of those stairs."

Recognition passed over his face, "I did..." he then looked between Rose and Yugi, "But you guys are okay?"

"We're fine," Rose said, "We were really worried about you though."

"Yeah," Yugi said, "Rose hasn't left your side all week."

"You mean you've been here the whole time?" Joey asked Rose.

She shrugged, "I was worried about you."

"Thanks Rose," he smiled.

"I'm just glad you're awake," she said, giving him a reassuring pat on the arm.

...

A few days later, Joey was released from hospital, and seems Yugi had to help his grandpa back at the game shop, Rose walked him home.

"I feel like I'm the wrong gender right now," Rose said with a laugh.

"What does that mean?" Joey asked.

"Well, isn't usually the guy who walks the girl home?" Rose said, raising an eyebrow.

Joey laughed, "I'm more of a man than you'll ever be," he joked.

"Good, I don't want to be a man!" Rose laughed.

There was a comfortable silence for a moment until Joey spoke up again. "Hey Rose," he said, gabbing her attention.

"Yeah Joey?" she asked.

"Thanks for looking after me back there," he said with a smile.

"It was no problem," Rose said, "And it was the millennium heart that healed you, not me."

"Same thing," Joey said, "But, as crazy as this sounds, I'm kind of glad that Bakura challenged Yugi to that duel, cause I got to know you better. You're a true friend, Rose."

"Right back at ya," Rose said with a smile.

...

A week later, Rose stood admiring her new purchase. It was bright red, and it was all hers. She jumped on it and sped off down the road, a bright smile on her face as she felt the wind on all sides of her. _I forgot how much I missed this, _she thought. She pulled up outside the game shop to see the gang standing at the front door, having just walked home from school. Their jaws dropped when they saw her.

"Hey guys," she said, taking her helmet off, "How was school?" she asked.

"You bought a motorbike?" Joey asked, examining the bright red vehicle.

"Yep," Rose said with a grin, "isn't it gorgeous?" she said, staring at it's glossy design.

"The Kawasaki Ninja 300," Tristan said, circling it, "Nice. Makes mine look like a hunk of junk," he said.

"I didn't know you knew how to ride a motorcycle," Yugi said.

"I had one back in Australia, it's cheaper than driving a car," Rose explained.

"That's a pretty sweet ride," Joey said, "Can I take it for a spin?" he asked.

"Joey, you don't even know how to ride a bike," Tristan said.

"It can't be that hard, can it?" Joey asked.

"Sorry Joey, but I care too much for your safety to let you ride it," Rose said. "Besides, I wouldn't let anyone ride it, this is my new baby."

"Whatever," Joey said, crossing his arms in a sulk.

Rose went to put her helmet back on, "Well, I wanna take it for a spin around Domino, I'll be back soon." She grinned at them, before jumping back on the bike and speeding off down the street. She rode for a couple of minutes around the city, testing out the bike's abilities. She took a sharp corner a little too fast, however, and accidentally veered onto the wrong side of the road. She pressed on the brakes harshly as she noticed a limousine headed for her, and she skidded to the side trying to avoid it. The car stopped abruptly, and whoever was in the back obviously had a few harsh words for her, as she heard the car door open behind her. She hopped off of her bike and turned around, and was quite surprised to see Seto Kaiba emerging from the back of the limousine. She took her helmet off and noticed his annoyed expression soften slightly as he realised who it was.

He then looked at her more harshly, "Rose, what the hell are you doing hooning around on a motorbike?" he asked.

"For your information I wasn't hooning, I was testing it's capabilities," she said, crossing her arms in front of her, still holding the helmet. "And sharp corners at high speed isn't one of them," she added.

Kaiba shook his head, he wasn't quite sure what to say. Just when he thinks he has her figured out, she goes and confuses him again. He'd only just come to a reasonable conclusion after their last conversation, and the last person he'd expected to run into on a motorbike was her.

"You should be more careful next time," he said, "Not all drivers are as alert as mine," he said, showing his usual cocky smirk.

Rose almost laughed, "Well thanks for not killing me," she said. "So what are you doing around this part of town, Seto?" she asked curiously.

"I'm afraid if I told you that, I'd have to kill you," he said with a smirk.

Rose laughed, "yeah, right," she said sarcastically.

"Well, maybe not," he said, "but its confidential Kaiba Corp business."

"Righto," Rose said. She was about to put her helmet back on, but Kaiba's curiosity had gotten the better of him, so he decided that he wanted answers.

"Rose," he said, grabbing her attention again. She stopped and turned back to him. "Care to come for a ride?" he asked.

Rose blinked at him, _why on earth would Seto Kaiba want me to ride in his limo? _she thought, bewildered by the offer. It seemed quite out of character, but she shrugged, _what harm could it do?_

"Alright," she said, "But what about my bike?" she asked.

He turned to say something to whoever was in back of the limo, before turning back to her, "Roland will look after it for you until we return."

Rose was still quite confused, but as Kaiba's right hand man got out of the limo, Rose took his pace, sliding in to sit across from the billionaire CEO. As the limousine took off again, Rose crossed her arms, looking at Kaiba critically.

"So what is this about?" She asked.

Kaiba turned his head to look out the window, "Something's been bugging me," he said, not missing his usual unfriendly tone. This didn't bother Rose however, she was used to dealing with people like Kaiba.

"Oh?" she said, "And what's that?" she asked.

He turned back to look at her, "Why is it that you are the only person apart from Mokuba who uses my real name?" he asked bluntly.

Rose was confused, _this can't possibly be the reason for this, _she thought. She shrugged, "For that exact fact, that it's your real name," she said. Kaiba raised an eyebrow. She sighed, and figured she'd have to explain further, "Well, after all that nonsense in Noah's virtual world with Gozuboro, I figured that calling you Kaiba would be silly."

"And why's that?" he asked.

"Beause for one, it's not your real name, its your adoptive fathers name, and secondly I assume that you hated the man, and so wouldn't want to be associated to him in any way, and that would include the Kaiba name," she explained. "I do realise now that there's probably not much point as everyone calls you Kaiba anyway, but that's my reasoning for it."

Seto was surprised at how honest and straight forward she had been with her answer, it was much more than he had expected. "I see," he said, "That's fair enough." This made him even more curious about her, the fact that she had put so much thought into what name she referred to him by was quite astonishing. The limo ride was not over yet however, as he wasn't finished asking questions.

And he was going to get answers.


	24. Chapter 24 - A Taste Of The Past

**Chapter 24 - A Taste Of The Past**

Seto and Rose sat across from each other in the back of the limo, and as Rose had discovered, they were just going around in circles. Seto's questions had confused her, but none the less she answered honestly, and he sat back with his arms crossed, appearing to be deep in thought. Rose wasn't sure why he was so interested in her mannerisms, it was quite odd to her. This was especially because before she came to live in Domino, nobody had ever been interested in her. She had been ignored at the orphanage, and the same to an extent at her work, so to then come to this was quite surprising for her.

Seto unfolded his arms, looking at her carefully, "You're not like them," he said simply.

Rose had been caught up in her thoughts. "Hm? What do you mean?" she asked.

"The geek patrol," he said in his usual tone, "Normally I am not fond of anyone they associate with, so why is it that you are an exception to that?"

Rose was surprised, "I don't know," she shrugged. "They are my friends in case you're assuming they aren't."

"No I'm quite aware that they are friends of yours," he said. "However what is bothering me is the fact that you seem...different."

"Different?" Rose asked. He didn't respond, he'd said enough. She shrugged, "well, all I can say is that I don't know half of my past, so I can't help you. All I know is I grew up in Egypt and now I'm here with the Millennium Heart."

He nodded, "Alright, you can go back to hooning on your bike then." The limo stopped, and Rose looked out the window to see Roland standing next to her bike where she had left it before.

"Okay," she said, opening the door and getting out, "See you round, Seto."

"One last thing," he said, leaning over so he could see her outside the limo, "I'd rather that you didn't share the contents of this conversation with the nerd heard."

"Okay," Rose said with a shrug. _How is she so easy going all the time? _Kaiba thought. He nodded, as Roland got back into the limo, and Rose watched as it took off down the road, a quite confused expression on her face. "I am never going to understand that man," she said, shaking her head as she went back over to her bike. She figured that seems Seto wasn't one to make friends, his way of finding out about people was asking them blunt questions. _Well, it gets the job done, _she thought as she got back onto her bike. It roared to life beneath her, and she sped off down the road, back towards the game shop.

...

The next morning, Rose barged into Yugi's room as soon as she had woken up, "The millennium heart just gave me a dream!" she said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Yugi asked as he sat on his bed, pulling his socks on.

"I mean I had a dream last night about my past! and the Pharaoh was in it!" she said.

_"I was?" _he asked, now paying attention to the conversation.

"Yeah, but you weren't pharaoh, you were still a prince, and I looked the same age as I did in the last vision we saw," Rose said.

Yami and Yugi both thought for a minute. "Maybe we can look into the millennium heart and find that memory," Yugi suggested.

_"Good idea," _Yami said, before swapping with him. "Ready?" he asked, holding the Millennium puzzle in his grasp.

"Yep," Rose nodded, a grin plastered on her face, "Let's find that memory."

...

"Ugh," Rose grunted as she sat up, "I forgot how disorienting this was." She shook her head, noticing they were in the same place as the last time they'd entered the confines of the Millennium Heart.

"You're not wrong," Yugi said, getting to his feet. The three of them looked up to the large door at the top of the beautifully designed staircase.

"Let's go," Yami said. They walked up the stairs and then through the door into the same corridor as when they first visited the Millennium Heart.

"Which door do we choose this time?" Yugi asked, looking down the corridor.

"Rose," Yami said, "Which one do you think is the right one?" he asked, "After all, these are your memories."

"Hmm," she said, looking around. She turned to the door opposite they one they had gone through last time, and the heart on her chest lit up. "It's this one," she said confidently. She opened the door and were blinded by light as they were pulled inside. They then found themselves floating above a large grand room filled with people. There were beautiful carvings on the surrounding walls, all in ancient egyptian hieroglyphics, and there were many pillars on the outskirts of the room.

"Where are we?" Yugi asked.

"Inside the palace, look," Rose pointed towards the throne of which the current Pharaoh sat, and right next to him, stood a young boy with Yugi's familiar spiky hair.

"Is...is that me?" Yami asked, staring down at the scene before them.

Rose nodded, "it is," she grinned at him.

"Look, there's Rose!" Yugi said pointing down below them. They all looked to the little girl kneeling before the Pharaoh.

"She has the Millennium Heart on her chest," Yami said, "This must be after the last vision we saw."

"Can you hear what they're saying?" Rose asked, trying to turn her head to listen.

"It's all muffled," Yugi said.

"I cannot make out what is being said either," Yami said. They were then pulled from the vision and woke up back in Yugi's room again .

"Was that what you dreamt?" Yami asked, helping her up.

Rose nodded, "But I didn't hear anything being said either." Yami sighed. "What's the matter?" she asked.

"Every time I come closer to knowing about my past, a whole bunch of new questions arise. It's almost as if we're getting nowhere," he said, sitting down on Yugi's bed.

_"But we are!" _Yugi said, _"We just saw a scene from your past!" _

"True," Yami said, "I just wish I could remember it."

* * *

So that's it for part 1, when i get more time i will probably go through all these chapters and rewrite them (because my writing is much better now, I'd like to think) and maybe add to this one so it's a bit more like the end of the first part, but at the moment the story just continues on with The Millennium Heart II: Waking The Dragons, which can be found on my profile :) Hope you're liking it so far! :)

PharaohsThrone


End file.
